Exoplanets from space -CHEOPS and PLATO ESA's next two projects (Phase 2)
Research Project, 2020
– 2024
Funding for continuation of the career support for Carina Persson to work on the preparation and scientific exploitation of the European space missions CHEOPS and PLATO. Both missions are designed to observe planetary transits by ultra-high precision photometry. The CHEOPS mission will be launched fall 2019, and PLATO in 2026. CHEOPS is a follow-up mission and will observe bright stars already known to host exoplanets, while PLATO will search for exoplanets around millions of stars. The NASA’s TESS mission, launched in April 2018, is an all sky survey of short period planets, which for these purposes can be regarded as a preparation for PLATO, in addition to a large scientific return.
CP has specialised in two areas: discoveries of new exoplanets in transit surveys by space telescopes, and characterisation by follow-up observations using ground based facilities. CP is a member of several CHEOPS and PLATO working groups specialised on transit detection algorithms and modelling, and is the Swedish contact for the CHEOPS outreach.
The first phase of this project exceeded the expectations and the work is now entering a new phase with the flooding of TESS data, the imminent launch of CHEOPS, and the accelerating PLATO preparations. The goal is to begin comparative planetology and to understand the true nature and frequency of other worlds, in particular habitable planets.
Participants
Carina Persson (contact)
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Malcolm Fridlund
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Collaborations
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
Noordwijk, Netherlands
NASA Langley Research Center
Hampton, USA
Funding
Swedish National Space Board
Project ID: 177/19
Funding Chalmers participation during 2020–2022
Swedish National Space Board
Project ID: 65/19
Funding Chalmers participation during 2020–2022
Related Areas of Advance and Infrastructure
Basic sciences
Roots