SPECULOOS: a network of robotic telescopes to hunt for terrestrial planets around the nearest ultracool dwarfs

Laetitia Delrez; Michael Gillon; Didier Queloz; Brice-Olivier Demory; Yaseen Almleaky; Julien de Wit; Emmanuel Jehin; Amaury H. M. J. Triaud; Khalid Barkaoui; Artem Burdanov; Adam J. Burgasser; Elsa Ducrot; James McCormac; Catriona Murray; Catarina Silva Fernandes; Sandrine Sohy; Samantha J. Thompson; Valerie Van Grootel; Roi Alonso; Zouhair Benkhaldoun; Rafael Rebolo

arXiv · 1806.11205

SPECULOOS: a network of robotic telescopes to hunt for terrestrial planets around the nearest ultracool dwarfs

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Abstract

We present here SPECULOOS, a new exoplanet transit search based on a network of 1m-class robotic telescopes targeting the $\sim$1200 ultracool (spectral type M7 and later) dwarfs bright enough in the infrared ($K$-mag $\leq 12.5$) to possibly enable the atmospheric characterization of temperate terrestrial planets with next-generation facilities like the $\textit{James Webb Space Telescope}$. The ultimate goals of the project are to reveal the frequency of temperate terrestrial planets around the lowest-mass stars and brown dwarfs, to probe the diversity of their bulk compositions, atmospheres and surface conditions, and to assess their potential habitability.

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Laetitia Delrez, Michael Gillon, Didier Queloz, Brice-Olivier Demory, Yaseen Almleaky, Julien de Wit, Emmanuel Jehin, Amaury H. M. J. Triaud, Khalid Barkaoui, Artem Burdanov, Adam J. Burgasser, Elsa Ducrot, James McCormac, Catriona Murray, Catarina Silva Fernandes, Sandrine Sohy, Samantha J. Thompson, Valerie Van Grootel, Roi Alonso, Zouhair Benkhaldoun, Rafael Rebolo. 2018-06-28. SPECULOOS: a network of robotic telescopes to hunt for terrestrial planets around the nearest ultracool dwarfs. https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.11205

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