We present “A STEP”, a project dedicated to the search for planetary
transits from Antartica. The project consists of a fully automatic 40 cm telescope equipped with an 11-million-pixel CCD installed at
Dome C. The site offers crucial assets for a ground-based exoplanet
transit search: uninterrupted phase coverage and excellent
seeing. This system would be able to detect hot Jupiters transiting in front
of stars as faint as magnitude sixteen and could also detect smaller
planets in close-in period around brighter stars. Our estimations,
based on results of previous surveys are an average of 6 detections
per 60 days survey. Compared to existing surveys, this excellent yield
is due to the nearly-continuous phase coverage and excellent seiing.
This short term project is meant to be a photometric qualifyer for the
site and the first stage of a massive detection campaign. A mid-term
objective of 1000 detections for 2012 could be achieved either with many
small telescopes or with a large Schmidt telescope with a large field
of view. The project is relatively simple and cost-effective, and has the
double purpose of qualifying the site and obtaining first-class
scientific results. Our team is already familiar with transit
detection with an automated telescope (BEST) and cold temperature
qualification
