Seeking life in outer space
IN THE world’s driest desert, an unassuming black box known as Espresso is about to begin a very big mission: scouring the universe for planets like ours to find signs of life beyond Earth.
‘Espresso’ stands for the Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations.
Espresso, an instrument also known as a spectrograph, is the most precise instrument of its kind ever built, 10 times stronger than its most powerful predecessor, Harps, the The High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher.
In the Atacama desert, in northern Chile, Espresso will be hooked up to a collective of four telescopes so big that scientists simply named them the Very Large Telescope, or VLT.
Together, they will search the skies for exoplanets – those outside our own solar system – looking for ones that are similar to Earth.
The Atacama is a particularly good place for this kind of exploration. Its skies are completely cloudless most of the year, which is why the highly respected European Southern Observatory, which runs the VLT programme, set up shop there in the first place.
It will analyse the light of the stars observed by the VLT, enabling it to determine whether planets orbit around them, and important information about those planets themselves: what their atmosphere is like, whether they have oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and whether there is water – all essential for supporting life.
“Espresso will be available on all four telescopes at once, which is something that had never been done before,” said Italian astronomer Gaspare Lo Curto.
“That means the likelihood of finding planets similar to Earth in mass and size, or the conditions for life, are greater.”
Chilean astronomer Rodrigo Herrera Camus called it a “great opportunity.”
Espresso “will help us answer one of the greatest questions we have in astronomy, which is analysing and understanding planets outside our solar system,” he told AFP.
The new spectrograph is housed inside a giant metal cylinder, which is chilled to an average temperature of -150°C – essential for its delicate optical instruments to do their work.
It was installed early last year beneath the base of the VLT, which is perched atop the 2,600metre altitude Paranal mountain.
Currently in testing phase, Espresso will officially begin its big mission in 10 months’ time – which is also a solitary one.
To keep it cold enough and protect its instruments, astronomers will have it under lock and key, in a giant underground room where no one will be allowed to enter for at least 10 years. – AFP-Relaxnews