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Spherical domes of the twin 10-meter telescopes are illuminated by the waxing moon as it rises above the summit of Mauna Kea. Keck I is in the foreground. © 2007 Laurie Hatch, image and text.
The Earthbound Planet Search Program has discovered hundreds of planets orbiting nearby stars using telescopes at Lick Observatory, Keck Observatory, the Anglo-Australian Observatory, Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory, and the ESO Paranal Observatory.
The Earthbound Planet Search Program has discovered hundreds of planets orbiting nearby stars using telescopes at Lick Observatory, Keck Observatory, the Anglo-Australian Observatory, Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory, and the ESO Paranal Observatory.
Our multi-national team has been collecting data for 30 years, using the Precision Doppler technique. Highlights of this program include the detection of five of the first six exoplanets, the first eccentric planet, the first multiple planet system, the first sub-Saturn mass planet, the first sub-Neptune mass planet, the first terrestrial mass planet, and the first transit planet.Over the course of 30 years we have improved the precision of Doppler velocities from 300 meters/s to 1 meter/s. We invented the iodine absorption cell technique, now used by groups around the world. We are poised to find many potentially habitable planets around the nearest stars over the next several years.