SPECULOOS: a network of robotic telescopes to hunt for terrestrial planets around the nearest ultracool dwarfs

Abstract

We present here SPECULOOS, a new exoplanet transit search based on a network of 1m-class robotic telescopes targeting the ~1200 ultracool (spectral type M7 and later) dwarfs bright enough in the infrared (K-mag &le; 12.5) to possibly enable the atmospheric characterization of temperate terrestrial planets with next-generation facilities like the <i>James Webb Space Telescope</i>. The ultimate goals of the project are to reveal the frequency of temperate terrestrial planets around the lowest-mass stars and brown dwarfs, to probe the diversity of their bulk compositions, atmospheres and surface conditions, and to assess their potential habitability.