Laser frequency comb installed on HARPS

In April 2015 the HARPS laser frequency comb was installed on the HARPS planet-finding instrument on the ESO 3.6-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile after completion of an intense first commissioning phase. The increase in accuracy made possible by this new installation should in future allow HARPS to be able to detect Earth-mass planets in Earth-like orbits around other stars for the first time.

This picture shows a HARPS spectrum of the light from the two laser frequency combs that that were tested.