TRAPPIST

TRAPPIST is controlled from Liège, Belgium, with some autonomous features. It consists of two {{cvt|60|cm}} reflecting robotic telescopes located at the ESO La Silla Observatory (housed in the dome of the retired Swiss T70 telescope) in Chile and at Oukaïmeden Observatory in Morocco.

The 60 cm f/8 Ritchey–Chrétien design telescopes and New Technology Mount NTM-500 were built by ASTELCO Systems, a company in Germany. The CCD camera was built by Finger Lakes Instrumentation (USA), providing a 22 x 22 arcminutes field of view. The camera is fitted with a double filter wheel, allowing 12 different filters and one clear position.{{Cite web|url=https://www.eso.org/sci/publications/messenger/archive/no.145-sep11/messenger-no145.pdf|title=The Messenger no. 145|last=|first=|date=September 2011|website=European Southern Observatory|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-03-21}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.astelco.com/projects.htm|title=ASTELCO Systems - Projects|website=www.astelco.com|access-date=2020-03-21}}

The telescope condominium is a joint venture between the University of Liège, Belgium, and the Geneva Observatory, Switzerland, and among other tasks, it specializes in searching for comets and exoplanets.{{cite web |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100608211819.htm |title=TRAPPIST telescope to scout the sky and uncover exoplanets and comets |website=Science Daily |date=June 9, 2010 |accessdate=March 6, 2018}}{{cite news |last1=Beatty |first1=Kelly |title=Former 'tenth planet' may be smaller than Pluto |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19697-former-tenth-planet-may-be-smaller-than-pluto.html |accessdate=6 March 2018 |work=New Scientist |date=8 November 2010}}

In November 2010, it was one of the few telescopes that observed a stellar occultation of the planetary body Eris, revealing that it may be smaller than Pluto, and it helped observe a stellar occultation by Makemake, when it passed in front of the star NOMAD 1181-0235723. The observations of this event showed it lacked a significant atmosphere.{{cite news |url=http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1246/ |title=Dwarf Planet Makemake Lacks Atmosphere |website=European Southern Observatory |issue=ESO 1246 |accessdate=6 March 2018 |date=21 November 2012}}

A team of astronomers headed by Michaël Gillon, of the Institut d'Astrophysique et Géophysique at the University of Liège in Belgium, used the telescope to observe the ultracool dwarf star 2MASS J23062928-0502285, now also known as {{nowrap|TRAPPIST-1}}. By utilising transit photometry, they discovered seven terrestrial planets, at least three of which were Earth-sized, orbiting the star; the innermost two were found to be tidally locked to their host star while the outermost appears to lie either within the system's habitable zone or just outside of it.{{Cite web |url=https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1615/ |title=Three Potentially Habitable Worlds Found Around Nearby Ultracool Dwarf Star – Currently the best place to search for life beyond the Solar System |website=European Southern Observatory |access-date=2 May 2016}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a20671/three-planets-life-outside-the-solar-system/ |title=Three New Planets Are the Best Bets for Life |date=2 May 2016 |website=Popular Mechanics |access-date=2 May 2016}} The team published its findings in the May 2016 issue of the Nature journal.{{cite journal |last1=Gillon |first1=Michaël |display-authors=etal |title=Temperate Earth-sized planets transiting a nearby ultracool dwarf star |journal=Nature |date=12 May 2016 |volume=533 |issue=7602 |pages=221–224 |doi=10.1038/nature17448 |pmc=5321506 |arxiv = 1605.07211 |bibcode = 2016Natur.533..221G |pmid=27135924}}

While TRAPPIST-1 is the only planetary system discovered by TRAPPIST, other planetary systems have been discovered by SPECULOOS and given SPECULOOS-n designations, with TRAPPIST-1 being SPECULOOS-1.

As with the other space observation projects of the University of Liège like SPECULOOS, Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope makes up a backronym, referring to traditional Belgian Trappist beer.{{cite news |url=http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1023/ |title=New National Telescope at La Silla—TRAPPIST to Scout the Sky and Uncover Exoplanets and Comets |issue=ESO 1023 – Organisation Release |date=8 June 2010 |website=European Southern Observatory |accessdate= 4 January 2015}}

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File:TRAPPIST telescope at La Silla Eso1023e.jpg|The 60 cm telescope is operated from Liège, Belgium, {{val|12000|u=km}} away.

File:The TRAPPIST telescope at La Silla.jpg|TRAPPIST's enclosure

File:Starry night invites to go out and look to the stars.jpg|TRAPPIST is housed at the former Swiss T70 telescope site

File:Comet ISON (C-2012 S1) by TRAPPIST on 2013-11-15.jpg|Comet ISON as captured by TRAPPIST before the comet disintegrated a few days later

File:Tarantula Nebula TRAPPIST.jpg|First light image of the Tarantula Nebula taken by TRAPPIST in 2010

File:The TRAPPIST telescope in its dome at La Silla.webm|The TRAPPIST telescope in its dome at ESO's La Silla Observatory

{{commons category|TRAPPIST telescope}}

• Carlsberg Meridian Telescope, a high-precision optical astrometry observatory
• SPECULOOS, a project of the University of Liège to search for exoplanets

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite journal |last1=Delrez |first1=L. |last2=Murray |first2=C. A. |display-authors=etal |date=September 2022 |title=Two temperate super-Earths transiting a nearby late-type M dwarf |journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics |volume=667 |issue= |pages=A59 |doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202244041 |arxiv=2209.02831 |s2cid=252110654 |bibcode=2022A&A...667A..59D}}

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• [http://www.trappist.ulg.ac.be/cms/c_3300885/en/trappist-portail Official TRAPPIST website – University of Liège] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226025929/http://www.trappist.ulg.ac.be/cms/c_3300885/en/trappist-portail |date=2017-02-26 }}
• [http://www.unige.ch/sciences/astro/en/ University of Geneva – The Geneva Observatory]

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Category:Robotic telescopes

Category:Minor-planet discovering observatories

Category:2010 establishments in Chile

Category:Astronomical observatories in Chile