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Diego Pozo Morillas
Gonzalo Campos Garrido
Ricardo Moreno Ruano
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Introduction
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Methods for discovery and obtained results
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Instruments and missions
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Conclusions
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Measures change of brightness of a star due to planet
transit.
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If the change is periodical it can be assumed is due to an
orbiting planet
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Earth-like planets change brightness only in 84 ppm.
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Discovers mostly big planets with short periods.
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Motivation: Finding Earth-like Planets in the
Habitable Zone
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Controls 100.000 stars using Transits method
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3,5 years + 2,5 years possible extension
Credits: GFDL
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Focus on the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way
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High density of stars as stable as the Sun
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Over the ecliptic plane to protect from Earth-SunMoon interactions
Credits: NASA
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Schmidt Telescope Photometer
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CCD 95Mpixels camera
Images every 6 seconds, integrated every 30
4 sigma statistical selection
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So far it has detected 15 planets
First 5 in the habitable zone last 1/2/11
1200+ candidates
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Majority of the discoveries so far
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Based on systems of mirrors
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Capable of direct imaging, radial velocity and
transit methods
Infrared spectrometry widely used
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High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher
(HARPS)
European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)
Most sofisticated optical system in the world:
Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI)
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4 fixed telescopes (8,2m) and 4 movable
auxiliary ones (1,8m)
Resolution several times better than Hubble’s
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Several different validated methods
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Several on-Earth and flying missions
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500+ planets discovered so far
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Earth-like planets on target