Astrophysics (Index)About

SuperWASP

(SWASP)
(broad Earth-based search for transiting planets)

SuperWASP is the current version of WASP, a multi-institutional project to search for transiting planets over the whole sky down to about 13th magnitude. Two observatories, SuperWASP-North began observations in the Canary Islands in 2003 and SuperWASP-South began observations in 2006 in South Africa. Each has eight 200-mm telescopes covering 490 square degrees per pointing. The designator WASP continues to be used for objects found by SuperWASP, but the string 1SWASP is also used.

Such efforts to find extra-solar planets by the transit method with ground telescopes grow less interesting: many of the easy-to-spot transiting planets have been found, and space-based efforts, though far more expensive, are far more effective. As of April 2025, the latest SuperWASP discovery I see listed is from 2024. In addition to exoplanet discoveries, SuperWASP collects a valuable set of light curves, useful, for example, in the study of variable stars.


(consortium,exoplanets,survey,distributed,all sky)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Angle_Search_for_Planets
https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/SuperWASPMission.html
https://wasp.cerit-sc.cz/form
https://wasp-planets.net/
https://www.superwasp.org/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021MNRAS.502.1299T/abstract
PrefixExample  
1SWASP1SWASP J140747 

Referenced by pages:
J1407
South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO)
WASP
WASP-43b

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