New Exoplanet Hunter 'CHARIS' To Report On Atmospheric Composition Of Alien Planets

Rupam

First Posted: Nov 14, 2016 03:20 AM EST

A group of scientists and engineers led by Princeton University researchers recently announced they have successfully added a new piece of hardware to the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope at Hawaii's Mauna Kea Observatories. This new instrument, they said, is aimed at enabling astronomers to capture and analyze the spectra coming from alien planets orbiting stars in our cosmic neighborhood.

Called Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph, or more commonly known as CHARIS, the new instrument was designed and developed by a team of specials led by Prof. N. Jeremy Kasdin. It enables astronomers to separate the light coming from exoplanets larger than Jupiter orbiting nearby stars which then can be used to determine their atmospheric composition.

Among many other uses, CHARIS is also likely to help the search for extraterrestrial life outside the Solar System. While the system is itself not designed to carry out for ET searches, it indirectly contributes to the cause by helping out scientists detect any signature of life in the atmospheres of exoplanets.

"CHARIS is a key addition to the growing exoplanet imaging and characterization capabilities at Subaru Telescope," Olivier Guyon, the leader of the adaptive optics program at Subaru Telescope and a faculty member at the University of Arizona, said, according to Princeton University.

"With CHARIS spectra we can now do a lot more than simply detect planets: we can measure their temperatures and atmosphere compositions," Guyon added.

According to Astronomy Now, the CHARIS project is actually just a small part of an ambitious long-term collaboration among three of the most renowned institutes across the world including Princeton University, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and the University of Tokyo.

CHARIS was assembled at Princeton University under the guidance of Tyler Groff of NASA (formerly Princeton University). Built over a period of five years, it is kept sealed inside a 230 kg (~500 pounds) with 76 x 76 x 30 cm form factor.