NGTS is a wide-field photometric survey designed to discover transiting exoplanets of Neptune-size and smaller around bright stars (magnitude V<13).
NGTS employs an array of 12 fully-robotic small telescopes operating in the 600-900 nm band, thereby maximizing sensitivity to bright but relatively small host stars (K- and early M-type stars).
The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) has provided eight of the 12 cameras in the telescope facility.
NGTS is sited at ESO-Paranal, home of the ESO’s VLT telescopes, which meets strict requirements for low water vapor and excellent photometric conditions. It will operate with a precision of 1 mmag.
NGTS saw first light on January 15 2015, and the full survey commenced in April 2016. Data from the first year of operation are now publicly available at the ESO archive.
In October 2017 NGTS' first planet was published in MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Society): NGTS-1b: A hot Jupiter transiting an M-dwarf.
October 2017: First NGTS planet: a giant planet orbiting a dwarf star.
Credit: University of Warwick/Mark Garlick
2015: View from NGTS at Paranal
Credit: ESO
March 2015: Set-up of the telescope mounts with open roof.
Credit: Gregory Lambert
Summer 2014: The building which will host the twelve NGTS telescopes is completed.
INSTRUMENTATION
SCHEDULE
Telescopes at Paranal Credit: NGTS project / R. West, University Leicester