NEID Exoplanet Instrument Sees First Light

The new NEID instrument, now installed at the 3.5-meter WIYN Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Southern Arizona, USA, has made its first observations. The NSF-NASA-funded instrument is designed to measure the motion of nearby stars with extreme precision — roughly three times better than the previous generation of state-of-the-art instruments — allowing us to detect, determine the mass of, and characterize exoplanets as small as Earth.