Exoplanetary science with the Next Generation Transit Survey

下一代凌日巡天（NGTS）是一项新的地面搜索凌日系外行星的计划。它的主要目标是在恒星周围找到海王星和超级地球大小的行星，这些行星足够明亮，可以进行后续研究，调查行星的大气成分。NGTS建立在超级黄蜂的基础上，超级黄蜂在其他恒星周围发现了100多个木星大小的世界。尽管开普勒任务已经发现了数千颗系外行星，但其中大多数围绕恒星运行的行星过于微弱，无法进行后续工作。通过测量更大范围的天空，NGTS将识别出许多离我们最近、最亮、最令人兴奋的系外行星。NGTS天文台由12个20厘米的望远镜组成，共同提供96平方度的广阔视野。每台望远镜都配备了一个“深度耗尽”CCD相机，它对红色光学波长最敏感，因此，对于最大限度地发现围绕小而冷的K和M矮星运行的小行星的可能性是理想的。NGTS的目标是达到0.1%的光度精度，比超级黄蜂提高了10倍。NGTS天文台位于欧洲南方天文台位于智利帕拉纳尔的主站，那里是著名的VLT的故乡。该项目将包括分析和利用调查数据。一个关键目标是参与获得后续的光度观测，旨在区分真正的凌日事件与模拟事件，如双星和视距三重系统。另一个目标是开发技术和算法，以挖掘近年来在凌日调查中发现的罕见和奇异物体的NGTS数据，例如巨大的环系统，尘埃和碎片云，被摧毁的行星，以及像“外星巨型结构”恒星这样的新现象。

The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is a new ground-based search for transiting exoplanets. Its primary goal is to find Neptune and Super-Earth sized planets around stars that are bright enough to enable follow-up studies to investigate the planet's atmospheric composition. NGTS builds on the heritage of SuperWASP, which found over 100 Jupiter-sized worlds around other stars. Although the Kepler mission has found thousands of exoplanets, most of those orbit stars that are too faint for follow-up work. By surveying a much larger fraction of the sky, NGTS will identify many of the nearest, brightest and most exciting exoplanets.The NGTS observatory consists of twelve 20cm telescopes working together to provide a wide 96 square degree field of view. Each telescope is equipped with a "deep depleted" CCD Camera that is most sensitive at red optical wavelengths, and therefore ideal for maximising the probability of finding small planets orbiting small, cool K and M dwarf stars. NGTS aims to achieve photometric precision of 0.1%, a factor 10 improvement on SuperWASP.The NGTS observatory is located at the European Southern Observatory's primary station at Paranal, Chile, the home of the famous VLT.The project will involve analysing and exploiting data from the survey. A key aim is to participate in obtaining follow-up photometric observations designed to distinguish genuine transit events from mimics such as binaries and line-of-sight triple systems. An additional aim is to develop techniques and algorithms to mine the NGTS data for rare and exotic objects that have been discovered in transiting surveys in recent years, for example giant ring systems, dust and debris clouds, planets being destroyed, and new phenomena like the "alien megastructures" star.