Backyard Telescopes for New Planets Is it Possible? |Dr. Timothy
Brown installing one of the telescopes that is part of the TrES
network. These 4-inch-diameter telescopes have shown that even
modest equipment can be used to discover new worlds. Fifteen
years ago, the largest telescopes in the world had yet to locate
a planet orbiting another star. Today telescopes no larger than
those available in department stores are proving capable of
spotting previously unknown worlds. A newfound planet detected
by a small, 4-inch-diameter telescope demonstrates that we are
at the cusp of a new age of planet discovery. Soon, new worlds
may be located at an accelerating pace, bringing the detection
of the first Earth-sized world one step closer. "This discovery
demonstrates that even humble telescopes can make huge
contributions to planet searches," says Guillermo Torres of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), a co-author
on the study. This is the first extrasolar planet discovery made
by a dedicated surv