Extending the Next Generation Transit Survey into the infrared

We will purchase a near-infrared camera for use on the Next Generation Transit Survey. The Next Generation Transit Survey is an STFC supported facility consisting of 12 20cm mirror telescopes fitted with cameras optimised for operation in the 520-890 nm wavelength range. NGTS has conducted wide field exoplanet surveys, and targeted observations of single transit events from NASA's TESS mission, star clusters and bright stars. NGTS is operated by a consortium consisting of the University of Leicester, University of Warwick, Queen's University Belfast, University of Cambridge, University of Geneva and the Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- in Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR). The UK based consortium all supported the facility with institutional funding and have received STFC science support via Grants and Studentships to exploit the scientific results from NGTS. All data eventually becomes public and is archived by the European Southern Observatory. We also make our data public via the PlanetHunters NGTS citizen science programme hosted by Zooniverse.

With this camera we will not only be able to discover new planets around other stars, but also the so called failed stars: brown dwarfs and extremely low mass eclipsing binaries but also contribute towards their characterisation. For the brightest targets we will be able to get simultaneous light curves in the optical with the standard NGTS setup, and in the near-infrared allowing us to determine more information about the transiting object and its parent star.