A new planet hunter on ESO's 3.6-metre telescope

The Near Infrared Planet Searcher (NIRPS) instrument, together with its adaptive optics system, sits just under the primary mirror of ESO's 3.6-metre telescope. The instrument's highly advanced optics system makes it possible to inject the light gathered by the telescope into an optical fiber, which is as narrow as 29 microns in diameter, smaller than a human hair. This system is key for cancelling out the twinkling of the stars by correcting for turbulence in Earth's atmosphere. NIRPS had its first light at ESO's 3.6-metre telescope in mid-2022.