Email Print Share
January 25, 2012

Discovery of Super-Earth Planet (Image 1)

The MEarth Project telescopes at Mount Hopkins, Ariz. Astronomers used these telescopes to discover a super-Earth orbiting GJ1214, a dim, red dwarf star located 40 light-years away.

MEarth (pronounced "mirth") is an array of eight identical 16 inch-diameter RC Optical Systems telescopes that monitor a preselected list of 2,000 red dwarf stars. Each telescope perches on a highly accurate Software Bisque Paramount and funnels light to an Apogee U42 charged-coupled device chip, that many amateurs also use.

To learn more, see the NSF Discovery story Waterworld Discovered Transiting a Nearby Star. [Research supported by National Science Foundation grant AST 08-07690.] [Image 1 of 3 related images. See Image 2.] (Date of Image: 2009)

Credit: Dan Brocious, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA


Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.

Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (5.4 MB)

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.