iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Poetically, the green laser was back on today to align the exposure meter optics. Spot the long thin mirror scarily close to the Echelle!

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

It's a one-year anniversary today ... this time last year HARPS3 had first lab-light! We've come so far, literally (location!) and metaphorically! (Your "ghostwriter" feeling emotional 🥹)

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Another month, another HARPS3 mission! But this time the road up the mountain is lined with the incredible blooms of Echium wildpretii ss Trichosiiphon 😍 More installation news later ...

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Before installing the detector it's essential to take some time out and see the gorgeous spectrum with your own eyes. It's impossible to capture what the eye sees but this photo gives you an idea ...

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Successful Echelle installation 🎉 The heart of HARPS3 is looking amazing 😍

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Today's the day we install the Echelle ... <drumroll> ...

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Two days, two major optical components installed! 🎉 The camera objective and the large collimator.

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Gluing the top set of kinematic mount points on to the Grism - done! ✅

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Hello HARPS3! Are you ready for some optics? OK then ... let the optical installation begin!⭐

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Linn Boldt-Christmas @nplinnspace.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Really enjoyed this awesome poster at #RockyWorlds4 by William Brilliant about @terrahunting.bsky.social — can’t believe we are so close to starting our hunt for Earth-like #exoplanets in our cosmic neighbourhood!! 🤩🌍🔭

Poster entitled ”HARPS3 in commissioning” by William Brilliant from the University of Cambridge on behalf of the HARPS3 consortium

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Suzanne Aigrain @airbornegrain.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

This week we are hosting the @terrahunting.bsky.social science team in Oxford. Terra Hunting will use HARPS3 which is right now being installed on the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma to search for nearby Earth analogues. Exciting times! @oxfordphysics.bsky.social @oxoplanets.bsky.social

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

HARPS3 team back on site to start the installation!

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Cavendish Laboratory @cambridgephysics.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

The Hidden Heart of #HARPS3 by Samantha Thompson has won First Prize in the 2025 Cavendish Photography Competition. ✨ HARPS3 is on its way from the Cavendish to the Isaac Newton Telescope, launching a new era in #exoplanet discovery. Find out more: buff.ly/mrk4UHH @terrahunting.bsky.social

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Niamh O’Sullivan @niamhk12.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

HARPS3 has definitely arrived at the INT (and I was only slightly excited to see it!) @terrahunting.bsky.social

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

A dawn delivery to the Isaac Newton Telescope this morning ... HARPS3 shipping containers arrive!!!

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

HARPS3 arrives in the Canary Islands today! Next stop ... La Palma!

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

It's time for another theme song of the day! www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTrk... HARPS3 sets sail!!! See you on the other side of the sea!

youtube.com

Enya - Orinoco Flow (Official 4K Music Video)

YouTube video by enyatv

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Today HARPS3 is leaving the nest and migrating south!

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

And the theme tune of today is ... www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-... It's T minus zero on the HARPS3 lab AIT! 🤯

youtube.com

Europe - The Final Countdown (Official Video)

YouTube video by EuropeVEVO

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

The HARPS3 science-grade CCD is installed in the detector head - hooray! Images below show the CCD after installation into the chip carrier and then afterwards when it is sealed behind the last lens/cryostat window ready for vacuum pumping (and then cooling) ...

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Today's the day we switch out the engineering grade CCD with the science grade (0) CCD! << Deep breath, steady hands >>

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A. Suárez Mascareño @asuarezmascareno.com · 30/06/2025

Moving on, René Tronsgaard is presenting HARPS-3 (@terrahunting.bsky.social), the third instrument in the HARPS family, that will observe a selected number of stars every night for 10 years, from the Isaac Newton telescope in La Palma. #eprv6

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

Because you can never see too many rainbows, and the HARPS3 grism is just so awesome ... take a look at the HARPS3 lab through the eye of the grism

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

... and the picture of the grism in its holder just before installation - how beautiful is this?!

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

I'm running a bit behind with the news from the lab! Not long after my last post, we installed the grism (grating + prism = grism) - the HARPS3 cross-disperser which separates the high-order overlapping diffraction orders. The world looks rainbow beautiful through the grism! 😍

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

... last week we installed the camera objective to the underside of the custom optical table (which fits in a large vacuum vessel). The camera objective consists of a set of 6 custom lenses - 5 of which are mounted in the barrel shown on the photo and the 6th is the detector cryostat window.

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

What you might have missed the past few months (because I've been too busy to post!) - intense period of sub-system integration and verification for the HARPS3 spectrograph. The past few weeks - integration of the main optical components ...

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Just used Porto (web extension) to import all our old tweets. The dates below aren't preserved but they span from 2015 when the project first started to August last year for the INT robotization preliminary acceptance review :)

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 04/09/2024

The newly refurbished/roboticized Isaac Newton Telescope @INGLaPalma detects its first Saturn-mass planet ;-) ... HARPS3 has an awesome telescope to install on! #INT-Preliminary-Acceptance-passed #ProjectSoft.cz #robotic-telescope-ops

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 18/07/2024

A truckload full of HARPS3 goodies is on its way from @obsge to @DeptofPhysics ... exciting times!

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 21/05/2024

some of the tiniest optics in HARPS3. Never let it be said optics can't be cute :) (no optics were harmed/defaced in the making of this image! :D

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 29/03/2024

The development for the HARPS3 astrocomb is in the news todayCongrats to our Heriot-Watt colleagues for their laser wizardry! Published paper here: nature.com/articles/s4146… news.sky.com/story/astrocom…

news.sky.com

Astrocomb breakthrough could help discover Earth-like planets

Researchers say the development could help them find a planet similar to our own that orbits a sun-like star.

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 18/05/2023

We had an awesome visit toyesterday. Thanks to the great team (group lead @DerryckReid) there for showing us their amazing research, including the prototype HARPS3 laser frequency-comb🤩 ... the most high-tech rainbow you'll ever see! 🌈 ultrafast.hw.ac.uk

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 31/05/2022

Terra Hunting Experiment already finds alien life ... our PI @DidierQueloz😁 t.co/jS7ILTyrCc

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 22/10/2021

HARPS3 was presented at last week's PLATO mission conferenceTake a look:slides) andrecorded talk) drive.google.com/file/d/1r8yCSu… zenodo.org/record/5565004… platomissionconference2021.iaa.es

platomissionconference2021.iaa.es

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 18/08/2021

YES! The monster HARPS3 vacuum vessel is in the lab. Awesome!

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 18/08/2021

What's that coming over the hill (well, round the corner)? ... Is it a monster?

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 06/07/2021

In more recent news, the development of HARPS3 and the Terra Hunting Experiment were presented in two posters at #EASLeiden2021. Check them out:and k-poster.kuoni-congress.info/eas2021/poster… k-poster.kuoni-congress.info/eas2021/poster…

k-poster.kuoni-congress.info

The Terra Hunting Experiment

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 06/07/2021

We've left you guessing long enough ... it was the impressive HARPS3 Echelle grating! (optics heart of the spectrograph

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 06/01/2020

Any guesses what it is yet? (clue: we ordered this item 2 years ago!) :

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 06/01/2020

... none of the shock sensors have been activated. Phew!

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 08/10/2019

HARPS3 (the instrument behind Terra Hunting Experiment) was having a final design review today at NOVA-ASTRON when this morning's exciting news arrived. We got some bubbly at dinner to celebrate #NobelPrize2019 - cheers! x.com/navarrr/status…

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Terra Hunting Experiment @terrahunting.bsky.social · 11/12/2017

The shiny new lab for the HARPS3 AIT is open for business :

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