[light music]
>> Narrator: We want to
find Earth-like planets
around sun-like stars
'cause that's our best
chance of finding a world
with life on it.
>> Today's the day that truck
carrying the NEID instrument
has arrived.
Over the next couple of days,
we'll start integrating
the whole system together
but the first step is
to actually get here
and today the
instrument got here.
>> The instrument is a
radial velocity spectrometer.
It measures to
very high accuracy
The wobble of a star as
a planet goes around it.
We are trying to do this
with a level of sensitivity
more than anything that
exists at the moment.
>> We're really gunning
for is one of the most
precise measurements of
a frequency in astronomy.
I'm hoping we can get
down to the point where
we're really probing
the limits of the star
and nothing else.
The idea with NEID is really
develop something
that is so stable
that you're purely dominated
by the astrohysics.
>> Not only will it
detect planets and
and measure masses
of known planets,
but you can try for direct
detection of planetary photons
so that you can
try to disentangle
the very small reflected
light signature
from the planet itself.
Instruments like NEID
present the first capability
for being able to do it.
>> One of the things
NASA wanted was
an instrument that could
actually help the community
follow up TESS objects.
[light music]
>> I think it will be a
very valuable resource
for confirming TESS planets.
So TESS provides the one half
and NEID I think will
do a wonderful job
of providing the masses for a
lot of these confirmed planets
>> Another goal for
a NEID is to identify
potential targets for JWST.
Because JWST will
open that doors
to characterizing these planets
by actually looking for
atmospheres and images
and so it's very important
that you find the right ones
to spend time with
the telescope.
[dramatic music]
