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Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Home The light of the star 51 Pegasi is spread out to reveal individual wavelengths, or colors, (left). A zoomed-in section (right) shows gaps that reveal the presence of specific chemical elements. Called spectroscopy, this technique is a key step in the NEID instrument’s search for exoplanets. (Guðmundur Kári Stefánsson/Princeton University/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/KPNO/NSF/AURA) The light of the star 51 Pegasi is spread out to reveal individual wavelengths, or colors, (left). A zoomed-in section (right) shows gaps that reveal the presence of specific chemical elements. Called spectroscopy, this technique is a key step in the NEID instrument’s search for exoplanets. (Guðmundur Kári Stefánsson/Princeton University/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/KPNO/NSF/AURA)

The light of the star 51 Pegasi is spread out to reveal individual wavelengths, or colors, (left). A zoomed-in section (right) shows gaps that reveal the presence of specific chemical elements. Called spectroscopy, this technique is a key step in the NEID instrument’s search for exoplanets. (Guðmundur Kári Stefánsson/Princeton University/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/KPNO/NSF/AURA)

The light of the star 51 Pegasi is spread out to reveal individual wavelengths, or colors, (left). A zoomed-in section (right) shows gaps that reveal the presence of specific chemical elements. Called spectroscopy, this technique is a key step in the NEID instrument’s search for exoplanets. (Guðmundur Kári Stefánsson/Princeton University/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/KPNO/NSF/AURA)

The light of the star 51 Pegasi is spread out to reveal individual wavelengths, or colors, (left). A zoomed-in section (right) shows gaps that reveal the presence of specific chemical elements. Called spectroscopy, this technique is a key step in the NEID instrument’s search for exoplanets. (Guðmundur Kári Stefánsson/Princeton University/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/KPNO/NSF/AURA)

Radial velocity is a method for finding planets around other stars by looking for the gravitational tug of those planets on their parent stars. NEID, shown here mounted on the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, is a cutting edge-radial velocity instrument. (NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/KPNO/NSF/AURA)