The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)
The Next Generation Transit Survey project (NGTS) is a wide field
observing facility made of an ensemble of twelve telescopes. It is
designed to carry out a wide-field ground based photometric search for
transiting planets on bright stars, reaching 1 mmag precision on stars
brighter than 13 V magnitude. The facility is located in the southern
hemisphere on ESO premises at Paranal in order to benefit from the
unique weather conditions and strong synergy with the VLT (Very Large
Telescope) and later the E-ELT (European Extremly Large Telescope) for
follow-up science. The whole facility is designed to be operated in a
robotic mode without on-site observers. The prime objective of the
survey is to search for transiting planets in the size range of Neptune
and below, with diameters between 2 to 5 Earth radii around bright
stars. The NGTS project began regular science operations in September
2015 and is already routinely providing robust exoplanet candidates.