Science
The Terra Hunting Experiment is a Doppler survey of nearby Sun-like stars that aims to be substantially more sensitive than previous Doppler and transit surveys to Earth-mass planets with orbital periods close to one year. The higher sensitivity is made possible by a new and highly precise Doppler spectrograph, a longer time baseline, and better time sampling than previous surveys.
The spectrograph, called HARPS-3, is being constructed based on the designs and experience of the successful HARPS, HARPS-N, and ESPRESSO instruments. HARPS-3 will be installed on La Palma’s 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope, which will be refurbished to allow for automated nightly data collection for at least 10 years. Several dozen G and K dwarf stars will be searched, having been selected by virtue of their brightness and suitability for precise Doppler measurements.
More information on our goals, observation strategy, target list etc. can be found in the detailed science pages.
