Share:The NEID spectrometer, an astronomical spectrograph, has begun its scientific mission at the WIYN 3.5m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Developed as part of a joint effort between NASA and America's National Science Foundation, and called NN-EXPLORE, NEID will be a new tool to discover planets outside the solar system. Interestingly, the gravitational pull of orbiting planets induces a periodic velocity shift on the host star and it can be measured by NEID. Moreover, NEID will also study the Sun through a special smaller solar telescope that the team has developed, and observe stars during the night. "Thanks to the NEID solar telescope funded by the Heising-Simons Foundation, NEID won’t sit idle during the day.

Source: The Nation July 29, 2021 11:15 UTC