Three habitable Earth-like planets observed by ERC grantee
date: 11/05/2016
Project: SPECULOOS: searching for habitable plane...
acronym: SPECULOOS
See also: CORDIS
Over the last 20 years, astronomers have been detecting planets outside our solar system, the so-called exoplanets. They also developed techniques to study their atmospheres, in an effort to find, one day, extra-terrestrial life. A successful method to locate exoplanetary systems relies on monitoring the brightness of the stars over long time spans. Regular dimmings of the signal suggest that one or more objects – possibly planets – are passing in front of the star.