The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS): Operations 2019-2022

下一代凌日巡天（NGTS）是一套由12台相同的望远镜组成的望远镜，位于智利的帕拉纳尔天文台-世界上最好的天文台之一。NGTS同时监测数万颗明亮的恒星，以寻找围绕其他世界（外行星）运行的行星。这些系外行星是通过寻找当系外行星经过星星前面时来自星星的光线的小倾角（称为“凌日”）来发现的。这些望远镜自2016年以来一直在运行，已经发现了许多凌日系外行星，包括以前无法从地面望远镜探测到的小型系外行星。在这份提案中，我们要求STFC提供资金，以在2019-2022年期间继续运营NGTS望远镜。这是一个非常令人兴奋的时期来操作NGTS，因为一个新的NASA航天器命名为“TESS”已经发射，很快将开始调查几乎整个天空的过境系外行星。TESS数据将公开提供，并可用于寻找过境系外行星候选者，然后由NGTS确认和进一步表征。这将使NGTS能够发现非常明亮的恒星周围的行星，并且比以前可能的轨道周期更长。除此之外，我们还将通过对疏散星团进行新的调查来发现年轻行星，NGTS数据还将对其他研究领域有用，如来自星星的耀斑事件和监测白色矮星周围的行星碎片。

The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a set of 12 identical telescopes situated at Paranal Observatory in Chile - one of the best astronomical sites in the world. NGTS monitors tens of thousands of bright stars at once in order to search for planets orbiting other worlds (exoplaents). These exoplanets are discovered by looking for small dips in the light from the star as the exoplanet passes in front of the star (called "transits"). The telescopes have been operational since 2016, and already have discovered numerous transiting exoplanets, including small exoplanets not previously detectable from ground-based telescopes. In this proposal we request STFC funding to continue to operate the NGTS telescopes over the 2019-2022 period. This is a very exciting period to operate NGTS, as a new NASA spacecraft named "TESS" has been launched as will soon start surveying almost the entire sky for transiting exoplanets. TESS data will be publicly available, and can be used to find transiting exoplanet candidates that can then be confirmed and further characterised by NGTS. This will allow NGTS to discover planets around very bright stars and in longer period orbits than was previously possible. In addition to this, we will also be able to find young planets by conducting a new survey of open clusters.NGTS data will also be useful for other research fields, such as the flaring events from star and the monitoring of planetary debris around white dwarfs.