Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array


The MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array is a ground-based robotic dedicated exoplanet observatory. The facility is an array of small-aperture robotic telescopes outfitted for both photometry and high-resolution Doppler spectroscopy located at the U.S. Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona. The project's principal investigator is the American astronomer Jason Eastman. The telescopes were manufactured by PlaneWave Instruments.

Science objectives

The primary science goal of MINERVA is to discover Earth-like planets in close-in orbits around nearby stars, and super-Earths in the habitable zones of the closest Sun-like stars. The secondary goal is to look for transits of known and newly discovered extrasolar planets. The unique design of the MINERVA observatory allows the pursuit of both goals simultaneously.

Specifications and status

MINERVA-Red is an echelle spectrograph optimized for the 'deep red', between 800 nm and 900 nm with a robotic 0.7 meter telescope. It uses a Fabry-Perot etalon and U/Ne lamp for wavelength calibration.

Other exoplanet search projects