HORIZON 2020 - Hunting for extra-solar planets

Since the early 1990s almost 2000 planets have been detected outside our solar system. These discoveries led to a new area of universe sciences which is rapidly expanding. Astronomers are currently searching for extra-solar planets using a huge array of telescopes and instruments. Funded by the ERC, Prof. Cardoso Santos’ team has developed new tools to be used in both ground- and space-based facilities, to detect and study these planets.

Related topics

Innovation Funding Researchers European Research Council Space United Kingdom

date: 09/11/2015

Project: EXtra-solar planets and stellar astrophy...

acronym: EXOEARTHS

See also: CORDIS

The most successful planet discovery techniques rely on the hosting star and the influence that the planet has on it. Indeed, most of the exoplanets have been detected using either the radial-velocity method, which investigates the gravitational influence of the planet on the star, or the transit method, that measures the dimming of the starlight as the planet crosses its disk. In this project, Prof. Cardoso Santos explored new aspects of the star-planet connection with the aim of optimising the planet search and the study of the newly found planets.