The ExTrA telescopes are sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. 
They will be used to search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars.
 Credit: ESO/Emmanuela Rimbaud

Artist’s impression of rocky exoplanets orbiting Gliese 832, 
a red dwarf star just 16 light-years from Earth. 
 Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger

The ExTrA telescopes are sited at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.
 Credit: ESO/Petr Horálek

Artist’s impression of Proxima b, which was discovered using the Radial Velocity method. 
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

A new national facility at ESO’s La Silla Observatory has successfully made its first observations.
 The ExTrA telescopes will search for and study Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby red dwarf stars.
 ExTrA’s novel design allows for much improved sensitivity compared to previous searches.
 Astronomers now have a powerful new tool to help in the search for potentially habitable worlds.
This short ESOcast showcases this new facility.
The video is available in 4K UHD.
The ESOcast Light is a series of short videos bringing you the wonders of the Universe in bite-sized pieces.
 The ESOcast Light episodes will not be replacing the standard, longer ESOcasts, but complement them with
 current astronomy news and images in ESO press releases.

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Credit:
ESO

Editing: Nico Bartmann.  
Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida.  
Written by: Nicole Shearer and Richard Hook.  
Music: Music written and performed by: John Stanford (johnstanfordmusic.com).  
Footage and photos: ESO, L. Calçada, spaceengine (spaceengine.org), M. Kornmesser, P. Horálek, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), I. Crossfield.  
Directed by: Nico Bartmann.