New Habitable Zone Planet Finder Instrument

Thanks to seed funding from NAI, a new, NSF-funded instrument to be built at Penn State will enable the detection of planets in habitable zones around cool, nearby stars. The instrument will reveal planets similar in mass to Earth and in orbits that allow liquid water to exist on their surfaces. Weighing over two tons, the Habitable Zone Planet Finder will be approximately the size of an SUV, and will be installed at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in west Texas.

For more information: http://live.psu.edu/story/55411

Source: NAI Newsletter