CHEOPS: A transit photometry mission for ESA's small mission programme
Paper in proceeding, 2013

Ground based radial velocity (RV) searches continue to discover exoplanets below Neptune mass down to Earth mass. Furthermore, ground based transit searches now reach milli-mag photometric precision and can discover Neptune size planets around bright stars. These searches will find exoplanets around bright stars anywhere on the sky, their discoveries representing prime science targets for further study due to the proximity and brightness of their host stars. A mission for transit follow-up measurements of these prime targets is currently lacking. The first ESA S-class mission CHEOPS (CHaracterizing ExoPlanet Satellite) will fill this gap. It will perform ultra-high precision photometric monitoring of selected bright target stars almost anywhere on the sky with sufficient precision to detect Earth sized transits. It will be able to detect transits of RV-planets by photometric monitoring if the geometric configuration results in a transit. For Hot Neptunes discovered from the ground, CHEOPS will be able to improve the transit light curve so that the radius can be determined precisely. Because of the host stars' brightness, high precision RV measurements will be possible for all targets. All planets observed in transit by CHEOPS will be validated and their masses will be known. This will provide valuable data for constraining the mass-radius relation of exoplanets, especially in the Neptune-mass regime. During the planned 3.5 year mission, about 500 targets will be observed. There will be 20% of open time available for the community to develop new science programmes.

Author

C. Broeg

University of Bern

A. Fortier

University of Bern

D. Ehrenreich

University of Geneva

Y. Alibert

University of Bern

W. Baumjohann

Osterreichische Akademie Der Wissenschaften

W. Benz

University of Bern

M. Deleuil

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille

Michaël Gillon

University of Liège

A. Ivanov

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)

René Liseau

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics

Chalmers, Earth and Space Sciences, Onsala Space Observatory

M. Meyer

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)

G. Oloffson

Stockholm University

I. Pagano

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

Giampaolo P. Piotto

University of Padua

Don L. Pollacco

Queen's University Belfast

D. Queloz

University of Geneva

Roberto Ragazzoni

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

E. Renotte

Centre Spatial de Liége

Manfred B. Steller

Osterreichische Akademie Der Wissenschaften

Nicolas Thomas

University of Bern

EPJ Web of Conferences

21016275 (ISSN) 2100014X (eISSN)

Vol. 47 03005
978-275980985-1 (ISBN)

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

DOI

10.1051/epjconf/20134703005

ISBN

978-275980985-1

More information

Latest update

9/15/2023