A new space astronomical observatory, dedicated to the search for planets outside our solar system (exoplanets), will be built and launched by 2024, as the ESA Scientific Committee has decided unanimously.
The main objective will be the discovery of planets in the so-called "habitable zone", similar to Earth in size and composition (ie, rocky with water), and solar systems like ours, thus throwing light on the question of whether "architecture "Of our space neighborhood is unusual or common in the universe.
The Observatory - the originals of whose name form the name "Platon" (PLATO - PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) - It will have 34 separate small telescopes and cameras that will see up to a million stars, covering more than half the sky.
The scientific Mission PLATO είναι η τρίτη μεσαίου επιπέδου, που επελέγη από την ESA στο πλαίσιο του φιλόδοξου προγράμματός της «Κοσμικό Όραμα». Έχει προηγηθεί η choice since 2011 of the "Solar Orbiter" and "Euclid" space telescopes. The first will launch in 2017 to study the Sun and the solar "wind" from a distance of less than 50 million kilometers, while the second will launch in 2020 and study the "dark» energy, "dark" matter and the structure of the universe.
The third PLATO scientific mission in a row was selected after a multi-year evaluation among a total of five proposals. Competing missions were EchO (Exoplanetary Observatory), LOFT (X-ray Observatory), MarcoPolo-R (collection asteroid sample) and STE-Quest (space-time explorer).
PLATO, which is expected to cost between 600 million and 1 billion, will observe relatively near stars, trying to detect subtle reductions in brightness that would be due to the passage of planets around them as they would interfere their parent star and the space observer.
Still, the new observatory will deal with astrology observations, studying the vibrations of the stars, which will help estimate the mass, diameter and age of the parent stars of the exoplanets. This will be done in conjunction with observations from new powerful terrestrial telescopes, in particular the planned European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), expected to operate in Chile by 2024 and which will be able to make observations on the exoplanets' atmospheres already identified PLATO, as well as their parent stars themselves.
PLATO will launch 2024 with a Russian Soyuz missile from the European Space Center Kourou in French Guiana in South America and the original duration of its mission will be six years. It will be placed at the "Langran 2" (L2) at 1,5 miles from Earth. Head of mission will be Dr Haider Raur of the German Space Agency (DLR).
ESA is an intergovernmental organization created by 1975 and currently has 20 member states, including Greece.
Pavlos Drakopoulos, RES
News Room «Profit»With information from RES - AMP
