Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2019 September 14

                         Little Planet to Exoplanets
                Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek / ESO

   Explanation: Of course this little planet is really planet Earth in a
   digitally stitched 360 x 180 degree mosaic captured high in the Chilean
   Atacama desert. The seemingly large domes house the 1-meter diameter
   telescopes of the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory. With a name
   creatively inspired by a sweet biscuit treat, the SPECULOOS (Search for
   habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) telescopes really are
   hunting for little planets. Their mission is to search for the telltale
   dimming that indicates the transit of terrestrial exoplanets around the
   population of nearby, tiny, dim, ultracool stars. On the not-so-distant
   horizon, adaptive optics laser beams are firing from ESO's mountain top
   Paranal Observatory. The central Milky Way and Magellanic clouds also
   shine in this little planet's night sky.

                     Tomorrow's picture: long on saturn
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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