Birmingham joins hunt for Earth-like planets

Researchers at the University of Birmingham are joining the search for Earth-like planets with the commissioning of a new telescope, named Ganymede, located in Chile, on the site of the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory. Part of the SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project, the Ganymede telescope is one member of a constellation of telescopes located in various parts of the world, and dedicated to seeking out potentially habitable Earth-sized planets. The Ganymede telescope is one of four SPECULOOS telescopes constructed in Chile, that make up the SPECULOOS-South Observatory. SPECULOOS' mission is to investigate planets orbiting ultra-cool dwarfs, a category that includes the smallest stars as well as brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs are 'sub-stellar' objects that sit in between the largest gas planets and the smallest stars. Ultra-cool dwarfs have small sizes, which helps astronomers distinguish small planets passing in front of them, which helps detecting Earth-like planets. The four telescopes in Chile, named Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto after the largest moons orbiting Jupiter, started operation in January 2019.