New Swiss instrument investigates planets in distant galaxies
Published: Tuesday, Dec 12th 2023, 11:10
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A new Swiss instrument has been installed at the large telescope of the European Southern Observatory (Eso) in Chile. Among other things, it will help to search for traces of life on distant planets.
The new instrument is a so-called laser frequency comb, which was developed by the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), as it announced on Tuesday.
The laser frequency comb generates light with an exceptionally stable frequency spectrum, which is characterized by evenly distributed lines. It serves as an optical scale, as the CSEM explained. This allows the speed at which a star is moving towards or away from the Earth to be determined more precisely.
The new instrument is part of the Near Infra Red Planet Searcher (Nirps), which is jointly led by the Department of Astronomy of the University of Geneva (Unige) and the University of Montreal (Canada). According to the CSEM, the new technology will calibrate Nirps to an unprecedented level of accuracy and precision. It should help to unlock the secrets of distant planets. This also includes the search for traces of extraterrestrial life.
"A new era"
From the speed at which a star moves, the researchers can ultimately tell whether it is orbited by planets. This is because when a planet orbits the star, its gravity causes the parent star to move back and forth or "wobble". The more precise these measurements are, the more the researchers can find out about the mass of the planets, for example.
The Nirps consortium expects this device to provide a decisive impetus for unraveling the secrets of the universe, as the CSEM wrote in the press release. "It will allow Nirps to better determine the behavior and properties of Earth-like exoplanets, ushering in a new era of discovery and exploration," the press release stated.
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