The Geneva Extrasolar Planet Search is a variety of observational programs run by M. Mayor, D. Naef, F. Pepe, D. Queloz, N.C. Santos, and S. Udry. The program is located at the site of Sauverny in Versoix, a small town near Geneva, Switzerland. The work done by this organization resulted in the discovery of several extrasolar planets, including the first confirmed extrasolar planet orbiting a Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b. Current programs originated at Geneva are the extrasolar planet search at the Haute-Provence Observatory, La Silla Observatory, and the M dwarf programs. Current projects involve the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher or HARPS spectrograph.

The Integral Science Data Centre is located at Ecogia, which also belongs to the town of Versoix. The centre is linked to the Geneva Observatory and deals with the processing of the data provided by the satellite INTEGRAL of the European Space Agency. On the two sites of Sauverny and Ecogia, a group of approximately 143 people are employed, including scientists, PhD candidates, students, technical staff (computer and electronics specialists, mechanics), as well as administrative staff.

Extrasolar planet search surveys

• The ELODIE Extrasolar Planet Search based at the Haute-Provence Observatory in France.
• The CORALIE Survey for Southern Extra-solar Planets based at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

See also

• Anglo-Australian Planet Search is another group searching the southern hemisphere search for planets.
• List of extrasolar planets

References