Eye in the sky: Europe to launch a major space observatory
The six-year mission has a budget of $821 million.
The six-year mission has a budget of $821 million. PHOTO: FILE
PARIS:
Europe on Wednesday unveiled plans to launch a major space observatory in 2024 aimed at finding planets orbiting other stars, one of the new frontiers of astronomy.
An unmanned probe named PLATO -- for Planetary Transits and Oscillations -- will look for telltale wobbles in starlight that point to an ‘exoplanet’ moving in front of its host star, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2014.
Europe on Wednesday unveiled plans to launch a major space observatory in 2024 aimed at finding planets orbiting other stars, one of the new frontiers of astronomy.
An unmanned probe named PLATO -- for Planetary Transits and Oscillations -- will look for telltale wobbles in starlight that point to an ‘exoplanet’ moving in front of its host star, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
The six-year mission has a budget of 600 million euros ($821 million), ESA said. Equipped with 34 small telescopes and cameras, PLATO will scrutinise thousands of star systems. Its will seek out Earth-sized planets and “super-Earths” that orbit stars in the so-called habitable zone, the agency said in a press release. This is the distance at which surface water can exist in liquid form and thus nurture life, as opposed to existing permanently as ice or a vapour. A total of 775 confirmed extrasolar planets have been found since the first was spotted in 1995, according to a tally kept by the website https://exoplanets.org.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2014.