The XO Telescope is an astronomical

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to obse ...

located on the 3,054 m (10,000 foot) summit of Haleakala on Maui,

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

. It consists of two 200-millimeter telephoto camera lenses, and resembles

binoculars Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes ( binocular vision) when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be hel ...

in shape. It is used by the XO Project to detect

extrasolar planets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

using the transit method. It is similar to the

TrES Tres may refer to: * Tres (instrument), a Cuban musical instrument * Tres, Trentino, municipality in Italy * "Tres" (song) by Juanes * "Tres", a song by Líbido from their album ''Hembra'' * TrES, the ''Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey'' * Templi ...

survey telescope. The construction of the one-of-a-kind telescope cost $60,000 for the hardware, and much more than that for the associated software.

Planets discovered

The ''XO telescope'' has discovered six objects so far, five are

hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere temp ...

planets and one, XO-3b, may be a

brown dwarf Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen (hydrogen-1, 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main sequence, main-sequence star. Instead, they have ...

. All were discovered using the transit method. ''Light green rows indicate that the planet orbits one of the stars in a binary star system.''

Other Ground-Based Transit Surveys

* Next-Generation Transit Survey *

Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey The Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey, or ''TrES'', used three 4-inch (10 cm) telescopes located at Lowell Observatory, Palomar Observatory, and Teide Observatory to locate exoplanets. It was made using the network of small, relatively inexpens ...

or ''TrES'' * HATNet Project or ''HAT'' *

Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (or KELT) is an astronomical observation system formed by two robotic telescopes that are conducting a survey for transiting exoplanets around bright stars. The project is jointly administered by memb ...

or ''KELT'' *

SuperWASP WASP or Wide Angle Search for Planets is an international consortium of several academic organisations performing an ultra-wide angle search for exoplanets using transit photometry. The array of robotic telescopes aims to survey the entire sky, ...

or ''WASP''

References

External links

The XO Project website

(SpaceDaily) May 19, 2006 Telescopes Exoplanet search projects by small telescope {{observatory-stub

Planets discovered

See also

Other Ground-Based Transit Surveys

References

External links