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Astronomers with the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) have announced the discovery of more than 50 new exoplanets - the largest batch of confirmed extra-solar planets ever announced. Among these, were sixteen planets which are classified as "super-Earths" - the name given to rocky planets less than ten times Earth's mass which could have the capability of supporting life.

The team, led by Michael Mayor of the University of Geneva, used the 3.6m telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile.

The 'radial velocity' technique perfected by HARPS detects the slight movement of a star moving toward and away from observers on Earth. The changes in radial velocity shift the star’s light spectrum. When the star moves away from observers on Earth, the light is shifted to longer, redder wavelengths, called redshifting. When the star moves toward Earth, the opposite happens and the star’s light is blueshifted. Through various hardware and software upgrades over the years, HARPS is now so sensitive, it can detect radial velocities of about 1 meter per second and exoplanets less than twice the mass of Earth.

HARPS has been operating for the past eight years, using the radial velocity technique to discover over 150 new planets. Mayor described how “the harvest of discoveries from HARPS has exceeded all expectations and includes an exceptionally rich population of super-Earths and Neptune-type planets hosted by stars very similar to our Sun. And even better — the new results show that the pace of discovery is accelerating”.

“In the coming ten to twenty years we should have the first list of potentially habitable planets in the Sun’s neighborhood,” Mayor continued. “Making such a list is essential before future experiments can search for possible spectroscopic signatures of life in the exoplanet atmospheres.”

This news article first appeared on Universe Today