Wide Angle Search for Planets

SuperWASP
SuperWASP-South cameras on Optical Mechanics, Inc. equatorial mount
Alternative namesWide Angle Search for Planets Edit this at Wikidata
Location(s)Spain, South Africa Edit this at Wikidata
Coordinates28°45′37″N 17°52′45″W / 28.7602°N 17.8793°W / 28.7602; -17.8793 Edit this at Wikidata
Telescope styleastronomical survey Edit this on Wikidata
ReplacedWASP exoplanets Edit this on Wikidata
Websitewww.superwasp.org Edit this at Wikidata
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WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of several academic organisations performing an ultra-wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. The array of robotic telescopes aims to survey the entire sky, simultaneously monitoring many thousands of stars at an apparent visual magnitude from about 7 to 13.[1]

WASP is the detection program composed of the Isaac Newton Group, IAC and six universities from the United Kingdom. The two continuously operating, robotic observatories cover the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, respectively. SuperWASP-North is at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the mountain of that name which dominates La Palma in the Canary Islands. WASP-South is at the South African Astronomical Observatory, Sutherland in the arid Roggeveld Mountains of South Africa. These use eight wide-angle cameras that simultaneously monitor the sky for planetary transit events and allow the monitoring of millions of stars simultaneously, enabling the detection of rare transit events.[2]

Instruments used for follow-up characterization employing doppler spectroscopy to determine the exoplanet's mass include the HARPS spectrograph of ESO's 3.6-metre telescope as well as the Swiss Euler Telescope, both located at La Silla Observatory, Chile.[3] WASP's design has also been adopted by the Next-Generation Transit Survey.[4] As of 2016, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia data base contains a total of 2,107 extrasolar planets of which 118 were discoveries by WASP.[5]

  1. ^ Pollacco, D. L.; Skillen, I.; Collier Cameron, A.; Christian, D. J.; Hellier, C.; Irwin, J.; Lister, T. A.; Street, R. A.; West, R. G.; Anderson, D. R.; Clarkson, W. I.; Deeg, H.; Enoch, B.; Evans, A.; Fitzsimmons, A.; Haswell, C. A.; Hodgkin, S.; Horne, K.; Kane, S. R.; Keenan, F. P.; Maxted, P. F. L.; Norton, A. J.; Osborne, J.; Parley, N. R.; Ryans, R. S. I.; Smalley, B.; Wheatley, P. J.; Wilson, D. M. (2016). "The WASP Project and the SuperWASP Cameras". The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 118 (848): 1407–1418. arXiv:astro-ph/0608454. Bibcode:2006PASP..118.1407P. doi:10.1086/508556. S2CID 24601511.
  2. ^ "SuperWASP Survey Information". NASA Exoplanet Science Institute. 5 February 2015.
  3. ^ Queloz, D.; Anderson, D. R.; Collier Cameron, A.; Gillon, M.; Hebb, L.; Hellier, C.; Maxted, P.; Pepe, F.; Pollacco, D.; Ségransan, D.; Smalley, B.; Triaud, A. H. M. J.; Udry, S.; West, R. (2010). "WASP-8b: a retrograde transiting planet in a multiple system". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 517: L1. arXiv:1006.5089. Bibcode:2010A&A...517L...1Q. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201014768. S2CID 35774603.
  4. ^ "Searching for Super-Earths" (PDF). Queen's University. 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  5. ^ "Catalog". Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia. 1995. Retrieved 1 April 2016.