Exoplanet-hunting telescope to begin search for another Earth

Jul. 18, 2024.
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Ten of the final cameras have been built and tested and the first of these was mounted onto the optical bench—the surface that keeps all cameras pointed in the right direction, earlier this year (credit: OHB System AG)

Europe’s next big space mission telescope will hunt for Earth-like rocky planets outside of our solar system, launching at the end of 2026 on Europe’s new rocket, Ariane-6.

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars), is being built to find nearby potentially habitable worlds around Sun-like stars that we can examine in detail.

The habitable zone

“PLATO’s goal is to search for exoplanets around stars similar to the Sun and at orbital periods long enough for them to be in the habitable zone,” said Dr. David Brown, of the University of Warwick, in a statement. “But it is also designed to carefully and precisely characterize the exoplanets that it finds (i.e., work out their masses, radii, and bulk density).”

It will also study the stars, using a range of techniques, including asteroseismology (measuring the vibrations and oscillations of stars) to work out their masses, radii, and ages.

Multiple cameras

Unlike most space telescopes, PLATO has 24 “Normal” cameras (N-CAMs) and 2 “Fast” cameras (F-CAMs). This gives PLATO a very large field of view, improved scientific performance, redundancy against failures, and a built-in way to identify “false positive” signals that might mimic an exoplanet transit, Brown explained.

Brown is giving an update on the mission at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull this week.

Image credit: An artist’s impression of the European Space Agency’s PLATO spacecraft. ESA/ATG medialab

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