Stellar Planet Survey

The Stellar Planet Survey (STEPS) is an astrometric search for planets around nearby stars. A raison d’etre of exoplanet research is the discovery of Earth-like planets. Our program is most sensitive to extrasolar giant planets (EGPs) that lie farther from their stars than any terrestrial planets’ habitable zone, as in the solar system.

Features of the research program

The Stellar Planet Survey (STEPS) instrument is a 4K x 4K CCD camera located at the Cassegrain focus of the Palomar 200” (P200) telescope since 1998. STEPS performs the world’s best long-term (10 years) relative astrometry of low-mass stars and has demonstrated its precision by finding low-mass binary companions and BDs around M-stars. Only the Hubble Space Telescope Fine-Guidance Sensor shows a comparable long term precision of "1 milliarcsecond (mas). STEPS can find the first astrometrically discovered EGP by continuing its observations to achieve the required temporal baselines and orbital phase coverages.

Observatories

* Hubble Space Telescope
* Palomar Observatory

Reference

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