 | |
| Alternative names | SPECULOOS |
|---|---|
| Location(s) | Chile, Spain |
| Telescope style | infrared telescope |
| Diameter | 1 m (3 ft 3 in) |
| Website | www |
 Related media on Commons | |
SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) is a project consisting ofSPECULOOS Southern Observatory (SSO) at theParanal Observatory inChile andSPECULOOS Northern Observatory (SNO) at theTeide Observatory inTenerife.[1][2]
The SSO consists of fourRitchey–Chrétien telescopes of 1-metre primaryaperture, made byASTELCO. Each telescope is equipped with a NTM-1000 robotic mount and will search for Earth-sizedexoplanets around 1000ultra-cool stars andbrown dwarfs.[3][4][5][6][7] As of June 2019, the SNO consists of one telescope, but more might be added in the future with up to three telescopes for SNO.[8] SPECULOOS is complemented bySAINT-EX andTRAPPIST.[9]
Ultra-cool dwarf stars andbrown dwarfs have small radii, causing the transits caused by planets to be deeper. This allows the detection ofterrestrial planets around these dwarfs, which are predicted to be common around brown dwarfs.[10] TheTRAPPIST-1 system showed that ultra-cool dwarfs form terrestrial planets in thehabitable zone. For brown dwarfs, it was predicted that 175 of these objects need to be monitored to find one system with transiting planets.[11]
During the survey operation, each telescope will observe one target for about 10 nights. This kind of observation is optimized for each target to find exoplanets in the habitable zone. To observe 500 targets in the southern hemisphere, 1200 nights or 5 years are needed. The continuous observation of one target is needed to find these exoplanets in the habitable zone around ultra-cool dwarf stars. Such planets are expected to have short transit durations, which can be small as 15 minutes.[12]
The system of SPECULOOS – South (SSO) comprises four telescopes calledEuropa,Io,Callisto, andGanymede. The telescopes are named after theGalilean moons that orbit the planetJupiter, the most massive planet in theSolar System. The first telescope (Europa) saw itsfirst light in April 2017.[13] The second telescope (Io) began operations in October 2017.[14] As of December 2019, all SPECULOOS – South telescopes are operational.[1] ESO released first light images of SPECULOOS – South on the 2018-12-05. The telescopes took images of theCarina Nebula, theHorsehead Nebula, and the spiral galaxyMessier 83.[2]Artemis is the first telescope for SPECULOOS – North (SNO); it began operations on June 20, 2019.[1]
The robotic observations of each of the four telescopes is controlled by the program ACP Expert.[15] Each telescope is equipped with anAndorPeltier-cooled deeply depleted 2k × 2k CCD camera, and the telescopes have a 12×12-arcminute field of view.[12]
The four 1-meter-diameter telescopes will be equipped with cameras sensitive in thenear-infrared, the wavelength range in which ultra-cool stars andbrown dwarfs emit most of their light. The detectors are optimized for 700 to 1000nm wavelengths, to observe ultracool dwarfs with aJ-band magnitude of 14 or brighter at goodseeing conditions.[12]
SPECULOOS involves scientists from theUniversity of Liège (Belgium), theUniversity of Birmingham (UK), theCavendish Laboratory, Cambridge (UK), theUniversity of Bern (Swiss), theMassachusetts Institute of Technology,Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, and theKing Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia), under the leadership ofMichaël Gillon of the University of Liège. TheEuropean Southern Observatory (ESO) supports and hosts the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory (SSO) at theParanal Observatory.[2][9]
As with the other space observation projects of theUniversity of Liège likeTRAPPIST, the nameSearch for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars makes up abackronym referring to a Belgian food: in this case, the spiced biscuit known asSpeculoos.
Thefirst light data of the SPECULOOS telescopes revealed theeclipsing binary brown dwarf2M1510A, which is only the second eclipsing binarybrown dwarf found so far.[16] The data by SPECULOOS did help to characterise low-mass eclipsing binaries and plays an important part in the follow-up of a new class ofrapidly rotating low-mass stars.[17]
SPECULOOS was involved in the discovery of the exoplanetK2-135b, the exoplanets aroundL 98-59, and the planetary systemTOI-178.[17][18] SAINT-EX, which is part of the SPECULOOS project, helped in the discovery of the planets aroundTOI-1266.[17]
In 2022, the discovery of twosuper-Earths, one in the habitable zone, aroundLP 890-9 using SPECULOOS was announced.[19] This system is also designated SPECULOOS-2, withTRAPPIST-1 being SPECULOOS-1.[20] In 2024, a short-period Earth-sized planet was announced around theultra-cool dwarfSPECULOOS-3 (LSPM J2049+3336).[21]
| System | Star | Planet | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Dist | SpT | Temp | Radius (R☉) | Pl | Period (days) | Radius (R🜨) |
| TRAPPIST-1[22] (SPECULOOS-1) | 40.66±0.04 | M8V | 2566±26 | 0.1192(13) | b | 1.510826(6) | 1.116+0.014 −0.012 |
| c | 2.421937(18) | 1.097+0.014 −0.012 | |||||
| d | 4.049219(26) | 0.788+0.011 −0.010 | |||||
| e | 6.101013(35) | 0.920+0.013 −0.012 | |||||
| f | 9.207540(32) | 1.045+0.013 −0.012 | |||||
| g | 12.352446(54) | 1.129+0.015 −0.013 | |||||
| h | 18.772866(214) | 0.755±0.014 | |||||
| LP 890-9[20] (SPECULOOS-2) | 105.4±0.1 | M6V | 2850±75 | 0.1556(86) | b | 2.7299025(40) | 1.320+0.053 −0.027 |
| c | 8.457463(24) | 1.367+0.055 −0.039 | |||||
| SPECULOOS-3[21] (LSPM J2049+3336) | 54.63±0.04 | M6.5V | 2800±29 | 0.1230(22) | b | 0.71912603(57) | 0.977±0.022 |
| Ground-based |    | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Space missions |
| ||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||
