Terra Hunting Experiment
@terrahunting.bsky.social
Using the HARPS3 spectrograph for a 10-year radial velocity survey to discover Earth-like planets around solar-like stars. https://www.terrahunting.org/ #exoplanets #astronomy #instrumentation
Reposted by Terra Hunting Experiment
Really enjoyed this awesome poster at #RockyWorlds4 by William Brilliant about @terrahunting.bsky.social — can’t believe we are so close to starting our hunt for Earth-like #exoplanets in our cosmic neighbourhood!! 🤩🌍🔭
January 19, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Really enjoyed this awesome poster at #RockyWorlds4 by William Brilliant about @terrahunting.bsky.social — can’t believe we are so close to starting our hunt for Earth-like #exoplanets in our cosmic neighbourhood!! 🤩🌍🔭
Reposted by Terra Hunting Experiment
This week we are hosting the @terrahunting.bsky.social science team in Oxford. Terra Hunting will use HARPS3 which is right now being installed on the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma to search for nearby Earth analogues. Exciting times! @oxfordphysics.bsky.social @oxoplanets.bsky.social
January 7, 2026 at 1:13 PM
This week we are hosting the @terrahunting.bsky.social science team in Oxford. Terra Hunting will use HARPS3 which is right now being installed on the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma to search for nearby Earth analogues. Exciting times! @oxfordphysics.bsky.social @oxoplanets.bsky.social
HARPS3 team back on site to start the installation!
Back on my favorite island to help assemble #HARPS3 and enjoy this supreme view of the night sky from Roque de los Muchachos ✨ #LaPalma #IsaacNewtonTelescope #RoqueDeLosMuchachos #astrophotography @terrahunting.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
HARPS3 team back on site to start the installation!
Reposted by Terra Hunting Experiment
The Hidden Heart of #HARPS3 by Samantha Thompson has won First Prize in the 2025 Cavendish Photography Competition.
✨ HARPS3 is on its way from the Cavendish to the Isaac Newton Telescope, launching a new era in #exoplanet discovery.
Find out more: buff.ly/mrk4UHH @terrahunting.bsky.social
✨ HARPS3 is on its way from the Cavendish to the Isaac Newton Telescope, launching a new era in #exoplanet discovery.
Find out more: buff.ly/mrk4UHH @terrahunting.bsky.social
November 4, 2025 at 5:19 PM
The Hidden Heart of #HARPS3 by Samantha Thompson has won First Prize in the 2025 Cavendish Photography Competition.
✨ HARPS3 is on its way from the Cavendish to the Isaac Newton Telescope, launching a new era in #exoplanet discovery.
Find out more: buff.ly/mrk4UHH @terrahunting.bsky.social
✨ HARPS3 is on its way from the Cavendish to the Isaac Newton Telescope, launching a new era in #exoplanet discovery.
Find out more: buff.ly/mrk4UHH @terrahunting.bsky.social
Reposted by Terra Hunting Experiment
HARPS3 has definitely arrived at the INT (and I was only slightly excited to see it!) @terrahunting.bsky.social
October 29, 2025 at 6:21 PM
HARPS3 has definitely arrived at the INT (and I was only slightly excited to see it!) @terrahunting.bsky.social
A dawn delivery to the Isaac Newton Telescope this morning ... HARPS3 shipping containers arrive!!!
October 23, 2025 at 9:10 PM
A dawn delivery to the Isaac Newton Telescope this morning ... HARPS3 shipping containers arrive!!!
HARPS3 arrives in the Canary Islands today! Next stop ... La Palma!
October 2, 2025 at 3:39 PM
HARPS3 arrives in the Canary Islands today! Next stop ... La Palma!
It's time for another theme song of the day! www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTrk... HARPS3 sets sail!!! See you on the other side of the sea!
Enya - Orinoco Flow (Official 4K Music Video)
YouTube video by enyatv
www.youtube.com
September 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM
It's time for another theme song of the day! www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTrk... HARPS3 sets sail!!! See you on the other side of the sea!
Today HARPS3 is leaving the nest and migrating south!
September 8, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Today HARPS3 is leaving the nest and migrating south!
And the theme tune of today is ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-... It's T minus zero on the HARPS3 lab AIT! 🤯
Europe - The Final Countdown (Official Video)
YouTube video by EuropeVEVO
www.youtube.com
August 6, 2025 at 7:19 PM
And the theme tune of today is ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-... It's T minus zero on the HARPS3 lab AIT! 🤯
The HARPS3 science-grade CCD is installed in the detector head - hooray! Images below show the CCD after installation into the chip carrier and then afterwards when it is sealed behind the last lens/cryostat window ready for vacuum pumping (and then cooling) ...
July 18, 2025 at 1:16 PM
The HARPS3 science-grade CCD is installed in the detector head - hooray! Images below show the CCD after installation into the chip carrier and then afterwards when it is sealed behind the last lens/cryostat window ready for vacuum pumping (and then cooling) ...
Today's the day we switch out the engineering grade CCD with the science grade (0) CCD! << Deep breath, steady hands >>
July 17, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Today's the day we switch out the engineering grade CCD with the science grade (0) CCD! << Deep breath, steady hands >>
Reposted by Terra Hunting Experiment
Moving on, René Tronsgaard is presenting HARPS-3 (@terrahunting.bsky.social), the third instrument in the HARPS family, that will observe a selected number of stars every night for 10 years, from the Isaac Newton telescope in La Palma. #eprv6
June 30, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Moving on, René Tronsgaard is presenting HARPS-3 (@terrahunting.bsky.social), the third instrument in the HARPS family, that will observe a selected number of stars every night for 10 years, from the Isaac Newton telescope in La Palma. #eprv6
Because you can never see too many rainbows, and the HARPS3 grism is just so awesome ... take a look at the HARPS3 lab through the eye of the grism
May 28, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Because you can never see too many rainbows, and the HARPS3 grism is just so awesome ... take a look at the HARPS3 lab through the eye of the grism
... and the picture of the grism in its holder just before installation - how beautiful is this?!
May 28, 2025 at 1:11 PM
... and the picture of the grism in its holder just before installation - how beautiful is this?!
I'm running a bit behind with the news from the lab! Not long after my last post, we installed the grism (grating + prism = grism) - the HARPS3 cross-disperser which separates the high-order overlapping diffraction orders. The world looks rainbow beautiful through the grism! 😍
May 28, 2025 at 1:06 PM
I'm running a bit behind with the news from the lab! Not long after my last post, we installed the grism (grating + prism = grism) - the HARPS3 cross-disperser which separates the high-order overlapping diffraction orders. The world looks rainbow beautiful through the grism! 😍
... last week we installed the camera objective to the underside of the custom optical table (which fits in a large vacuum vessel). The camera objective consists of a set of 6 custom lenses - 5 of which are mounted in the barrel shown on the photo and the 6th is the detector cryostat window.
May 15, 2025 at 3:58 PM
... last week we installed the camera objective to the underside of the custom optical table (which fits in a large vacuum vessel). The camera objective consists of a set of 6 custom lenses - 5 of which are mounted in the barrel shown on the photo and the 6th is the detector cryostat window.
What you might have missed the past few months (because I've been too busy to post!) - intense period of sub-system integration and verification for the HARPS3 spectrograph. The past few weeks - integration of the main optical components ...
May 15, 2025 at 3:44 PM
What you might have missed the past few months (because I've been too busy to post!) - intense period of sub-system integration and verification for the HARPS3 spectrograph. The past few weeks - integration of the main optical components ...
Just used Porto (web extension) to import all our old tweets. The dates below aren't preserved but they span from 2015 when the project first started to August last year for the INT robotization preliminary acceptance review :)
May 10, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Just used Porto (web extension) to import all our old tweets. The dates below aren't preserved but they span from 2015 when the project first started to August last year for the INT robotization preliminary acceptance review :)
Hello World!
April 6, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Hello World!
The newly refurbished/roboticized Isaac Newton Telescope @INGLaPalma detects its first Saturn-mass planet ;-) ... HARPS3 has an awesome telescope to install on! #INT-Preliminary-Acceptance-passed #ProjectSoft.cz #robotic-telescope-ops
May 10, 2025 at 1:40 PM
The newly refurbished/roboticized Isaac Newton Telescope @INGLaPalma detects its first Saturn-mass planet ;-) ... HARPS3 has an awesome telescope to install on! #INT-Preliminary-Acceptance-passed #ProjectSoft.cz #robotic-telescope-ops
A truckload full of HARPS3 goodies is on its way from @obsge to @DeptofPhysics ... exciting times!
May 10, 2025 at 1:40 PM
A truckload full of HARPS3 goodies is on its way from @obsge to @DeptofPhysics ... exciting times!
some of the tiniest optics in HARPS3. Never let it be said optics can't be cute :) (no optics were harmed/defaced in the making of this image! :D
May 10, 2025 at 1:40 PM
some of the tiniest optics in HARPS3. Never let it be said optics can't be cute :) (no optics were harmed/defaced in the making of this image! :D
The development for the HARPS3 astrocomb is in the news todayCongrats to our Heriot-Watt colleagues for their laser wizardry! Published paper here:
nature.com/articles/s4146… news.sky.com/story/astrocom…
nature.com/articles/s4146… news.sky.com/story/astrocom…
Astrocomb breakthrough could help discover Earth-like planets
Researchers say the development could help them find a planet similar to our own that orbits a sun-like star.
news.sky.com
May 10, 2025 at 1:40 PM
The development for the HARPS3 astrocomb is in the news todayCongrats to our Heriot-Watt colleagues for their laser wizardry! Published paper here:
nature.com/articles/s4146… news.sky.com/story/astrocom…
nature.com/articles/s4146… news.sky.com/story/astrocom…
We had an awesome visit toyesterday. Thanks to the great team (group lead @DerryckReid) there for showing us their amazing research, including the prototype HARPS3 laser frequency-comb🤩 ... the most high-tech rainbow you'll ever see! 🌈
ultrafast.hw.ac.uk
ultrafast.hw.ac.uk
May 10, 2025 at 1:40 PM
We had an awesome visit toyesterday. Thanks to the great team (group lead @DerryckReid) there for showing us their amazing research, including the prototype HARPS3 laser frequency-comb🤩 ... the most high-tech rainbow you'll ever see! 🌈
ultrafast.hw.ac.uk
ultrafast.hw.ac.uk