How to hunt for Other Earths

One of the most important searches for exoplanets in the next decade will be the Terra Hunting Experiment, since it aims to detect Earth-mass planets in Earth-like orbits around solar-type stars. The search will use the radial velocity method, i.e. searching for the motion of the star as star and planet orbit their common center of mass. To measure the radial velocities we are installing a new spectrograph on the Isaac Newton telescope in La Palma, as well as roboticising the telescope, and will then carry out a ten-year search for exoplanets. Although we will not be able to detect Earths in one-year orbits in the first few years of data, we should detect higher-mass and shorter-period planets, and so the graduate student will be involved in the early operations and early science.