The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)

TL;DR

The NGTS is a ground-based sky survey with an array of telescopes designed to discover small, bright exoplanets like super-Earths and Neptunes, enabling follow-up studies such as mass measurement and atmospheric analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a new multi-telescope survey system optimized for detecting small exoplanets around bright stars, with verified high-precision photometry and promising discovery forecasts.

Findings

Demonstrated sub-mmag photometric precision with prototype instruments.

Simulations predict discovery of ~30 super-Earths and 200 Neptunes.

Designed for efficient follow-up with existing telescopes.

Abstract

The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a new ground-based sky survey designed to find transiting Neptunes and super-Earths. By covering at least sixteen times the sky area of Kepler we will find small planets around stars that are sufficiently bright for radial velocity confirmation, mass determination and atmospheric characterisation. The NGTS instrument will consist of an array of twelve independently pointed 20cm telescopes fitted with red-sensitive CCD cameras. It will be constructed at the ESO Paranal Observatory, thereby benefiting from the very best photometric conditions as well as follow up synergy with the VLT and E-ELT. Our design has been verified through the operation of two prototype instruments, demonstrating white noise characteristics to sub-mmag photometric precision. Detailed simulations show that about thirty bright super-Earths and up to two hundred Neptunes could be discovered. Our science operations are due to begin in 2014.