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There is a little more Switzerland in the depths of the Chilean desert, on one of the telescopes of the Silla site. After the Leonhard-Euler telescope of 1.2 meters of opening, operated by the Geneva Observatory since 1998, a new instrument, baptized Nirps (English acronym of planet researcher in the near infrared) delivered his first results on July 29 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Partly developed by the University of Geneva, it is installed on the 3.6 meter diameter telescope of the European Austral Observatory (ESO), alongside another similar tool, Harps (English acronym for planet researcher by high precision radial velocity). “The latter works in the visible field,” says François Bouchy, associate professor at the Unige Astronomy Department and co -responsible for the project. But we wanted a tool with similar abilities in the near infrared. ”
