First light of ESPRESSO: a new generation of hunters for Earth-like planets
(WorldNews Spain)

ESPRESSO (Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) on ESO`s very Large Telescope has made its first successful observations. This spectrograph, on which the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) has collaborated, will look for exoplanets with unprecedented accuracy, by detecting minuscule changes of velocity in the stars which host planetary systems. Since, in 1995 the first exoplanet was discovered orbiting a star similar to the Sun (51 Pegasi b) we have found thousands of exoplanets thanks to the evolution and improvement of observational technology. The ESPRESSO instrument, installed at a focus which can be reached from any of the four 8.2m...