The
ESO 3.6 m Telescope is, as the name suggests, a 3.6 m
telescopeA telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century...
run by the
European Southern ObservatoryThe European Southern Observatory , is an intergovernmental research organization for astronomy, composed and supported by fourteen countries from Europe...
. Located in
La Silla ObservatoryLa Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with eighteen telescopes. Nine of these telescopes were built by the European Southern Observatory organisation, and several of the others are partly maintained by ESO...
,
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
it was commissioned in 1977 but also received an overhaul in 1999. It was one of the largest optical telescopes in the world when it was completed in the late 1970s, and unlike some large telescopes, was a technical success with commensurate optical and scientific achievements.
The discovery of the extrasolar planet
Gliese 581 cGliese 581 c or Gl 581 c is an extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581. With a mass at least 5.36 times that of the Earth, it is classified as a super-Earth, a category which incorporates planets exceeding the mass of Earth but smaller than 10 Earth masses...
by the team of
Stéphane UdryStéphane Udry is an astronomer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, whose current work is primarily the search for extra-solar planets...
University of GenevaThe University of Geneva is a university in Geneva, Switzerland.Founded by John Calvin in 1559 as a theological seminary that also taught law, it remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873 it dropped its religious...
's Observatory in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
was announced on April 24, 2007.
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The
ESO 3.6 m Telescope is, as the name suggests, a 3.6 m
telescopeA telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century...
run by the
European Southern ObservatoryThe European Southern Observatory , is an intergovernmental research organization for astronomy, composed and supported by fourteen countries from Europe...
. Located in
La Silla ObservatoryLa Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with eighteen telescopes. Nine of these telescopes were built by the European Southern Observatory organisation, and several of the others are partly maintained by ESO...
,
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
it was commissioned in 1977 but also received an overhaul in 1999. It was one of the largest optical telescopes in the world when it was completed in the late 1970s, and unlike some large telescopes, was a technical success with commensurate optical and scientific achievements.
The discovery of the extrasolar planet
Gliese 581 cGliese 581 c or Gl 581 c is an extrasolar planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581. With a mass at least 5.36 times that of the Earth, it is classified as a super-Earth, a category which incorporates planets exceeding the mass of Earth but smaller than 10 Earth masses...
by the team of
Stéphane UdryStéphane Udry is an astronomer at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, whose current work is primarily the search for extra-solar planets...
University of GenevaThe University of Geneva is a university in Geneva, Switzerland.Founded by John Calvin in 1559 as a theological seminary that also taught law, it remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873 it dropped its religious...
's Observatory in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
was announced on April 24, 2007. The team used the
HARPSThe High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher is a high-precision echelle spectrograph installed in 2002 on ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. The first light was achieved in February 2003...
instrument (an
echelle spectrographAn echelle grating is a type of diffraction grating which is characterised by a relatively low grooves density but is optimized for high diffraction orders. Echelle gratings are, like other types of diffraction grating, used in spectrometers and similar instruments, such as HARPS, and numerous...
) on the
European Southern ObservatoryThe European Southern Observatory , is an intergovernmental research organization for astronomy, composed and supported by fourteen countries from Europe...
ESO 3.6 m Telescope in La Silla,
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, and employed the
radial velocityRadial velocity is the velocity of an object in the direction of the line of sight . The light of an object with a substantial radial velocity will be subject to Doppler effect, so the frequency of the light decreases for receding objects and increases for approaching objects .The radial velocity...
technique to identify the planet's influence on the star.
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