NIRPS, the new planet-hunting instrument on ESO's 3.6-m telescope performs first observations

The Near InfraRed Planet Searcher (NIRPS), the new planet-hunting instrument at the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, has successfully performed its first observations, ESO said on Monday.

NIRPS is an infrared spectrograph designed to detect Earth-like rocky planets around the Milky Way's coolest stars that could potentially be habitable. Using the so-called radial velocity method, the instrument will detect and characterise planets orbiting cool, red, M-type red dwarf stars - stars with between 10% and 50% of the mass of the Sun.

"NIRPS has been a long time in the making, and I’m thrilled with how this mission has come together. This incredible infrared instrument will help us find the closest habitable worlds to our own Solar System," said René Doyon, Director of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Université de Montréal, and co-Principal Investigator of NIRPS.

1/ The Near InfraRed Planet Searcher (NIRPS) instrument, mounted on our 3.6-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, has successfully performed its first observations. Its mission is to search for new exoplanets around the Milky Way’s coolest stars. pic.twitter.com/SMz0Tag4EA

— ESO (@ESO) June 27, 2022

NIRPS is built by an international collaboration led by the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREX) team at the Université de Montréal and the Observatoire Astronomique de l’Université de Genève.

The ESO 3.6-metre telescope also hosts HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher), one of the most powerful planet hunters in existence. The instrument also uses the radial velocity method to search for exoplanets (planets beyond our solar system), but operates using visible light.

Together, NIRPS AND HARPS will provide a more comprehensive analysis of these rocky worlds. Discoveries made by these planet hunters will be followed up by some of the most powerful observatories in the world including ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope in Chile.