Terra Hunting Experiment

The Terra Hunting Experiment is a planned 10-year search for extra-solar planets using a purpose-built high resolution spectrograph modeled after HARPS, called HARPS3 (aka RoboHARPS), which will be installed on the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT), which will be (largely?) dedicated to the survey. The goal is to observe somewhat Sun-like stars for signs of Earth-like planets using the radial velocity method, specifically, for such planets with orbital period's on the order of a year. The observations will be automated so it can track the radial velocity of a substantial number of stars for months at a time. The current plan is to refurbish the telescope in 2024, then install HARPS3, with the aim of first light by the end of 2025.