The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS)

Abstract

We describe the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), which is a\nground-based project searching for transiting exoplanets orbiting bright stars.\nNGTS builds on the legacy of previous surveys, most notably WASP, and is\ndesigned to achieve higher photometric precision and hence find smaller planets\nthan have previously been detected from the ground. It also operates in red\nlight, maximising sensitivity to late K and early M dwarf stars. The survey\nspecifications call for photometric precision of 0.1 per cent in red light over\nan instantaneous field of view of 100 square degrees, enabling the detection of\nNeptune-sized exoplanets around Sun-like stars and super-Earths around M\ndwarfs. The survey is carried out with a purpose-built facility at Cerro\nParanal, Chile, which is the premier site of the European Southern Observatory\n(ESO). An array of twelve 20cm f/2.8 telescopes fitted with back-illuminated\ndeep-depletion CCD cameras are used to survey fields intensively at\nintermediate Galactic latitudes. The instrument is also ideally suited to\nground-based photometric follow-up of exoplanet candidates from space\ntelescopes such as TESS, Gaia and PLATO. We present observations that combine\nprecise autoguiding and the superb observing conditions at Paranal to provide\nroutine photometric precision of 0.1 per cent in 1 hour for stars with I-band\nmagnitudes brighter than 13. We describe the instrument and data analysis\nmethods as well as the status of the survey, which achieved first light in 2015\nand began full survey operations in 2016. NGTS data will be made publicly\navailable through the ESO archive.\n