Portal de Cartagena
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Students at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena seek planets outside the solar system thanks to new optical telescope Astrophysical Observatory was installed in the building's roof to Support Services Technology Research.
The telescope has a half-meter primary mirror diameter, polished with excellent optical quality.
Superior Technical School of Telecommunications Engineering sixty thousand euros invested in setting up the telescope, which is mounted under a dome 3.5 meters in diameter.
The rector of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Felix Faure, yesterday attended the presentation of this optical instrument with the doctor honoris causa of the UPCT and researcher of the Astrophysical Institute of the Canary Islands, Rafael Rebolo, who has collaborated in the implementation of this Project School of Telecommunications Engineering with the members of the Astrophysics Research Group, Isidro Village, Anastasio Díaz and Antonio Perez.
Rafael Rebolo researcher in his speech stressed the importance of a university as an instrument UPCT incorporate these features that allow the detection of new planets similar in size to the Earth in orbit around other stars.
The telescope will allow to be carried out scientific and educational work as the development of final year projects, in addition to familiarizing students with the instruments used in astrophysical research.
To search for these celestial objects using a technique called the transit method, which identifies the existence of a planet by the differences in light captured by the telescope when the object passes in front of a star.
The investigator said that in recent years from telescopes in Spain and of a size similar to UPCT has succeeded in locating a dozen planets outside the Solar System.
The telescope is automated to work independently connected to a computer and can be carried out systematic observations and discoveries of celestial bodies at any point in the sky.
The event took place in the library of the former headquarters of Antigone, where up to November 27 can see the exhibition of astrophotography "Looking at the sky", consisting of forty images by Isidro Village, Royal José Muñoz, Juan Carlos Casado and Eduard García Ribera.
The sample can see from eclipses captured in the Libyan desert to stellar lines seen in the circular motion of the sky overnight.
Source: UPCT
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