Browsing: HARPS

The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) is a high-precision spectrograph designed to detect exoplanets by measuring minute shifts in a star’s radial velocity, caused by the gravitational pull of orbiting planets. Installed on the 3.6-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, HARPS is one of the most successful instruments for finding Earth-like exoplanets, particularly around Sun-like and smaller stars. Operating in the visible spectrum, it achieves an extraordinary precision of about 1 meter per second, allowing astronomers to detect even small, rocky planets. Since its first light in 2003, HARPS has contributed to the discovery of hundreds of exoplanets, significantly advancing our understanding of planetary systems beyond our own.