Poster presentations and abstracts

EXO9

Future instruments to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and their environment.

Exoplanets are being discovered in large numbers thanks to recent and ongoing surveys using state-of-the-art instrumentation from the ground and from space. In the next years, new astronomical instruments will further scout our Galaxy to overcome the current observational biases in the search of alien worlds, to gain a deeper understanding of the chemical and physical properties of both exoplanets and their environments, and to unveil the processes of formation and evolution of planets and their atmospheres.

The goal of this session is to bring together the instrumentation and observational communities that are underpinning the future of this field. Contributions are invited to review ongoing programmes of exoplanet and circumstellar discs discovery and characterisation, to update on the progress of planned instrumentation programmes, and to present innovative ideas for future instrumentation.

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Convener: Camilla Danielski | Co-conveners: Elodie Choquet, Paul Eccleston, Enzo Pascale, Subhajit Sarkar

Mon, 28 Sep, 11:00–11:20 (CEST)

Oral presentations and abstracts

Poster presentations and abstracts

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Chairperson: Elodie Choquet

EPSC2020-396

The PLATO mission: Studying the diversity of exoplanets orbiting up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars

Ana Maria Heras, Heike Rauer, Conny Aerts, Magali Deleuil, Laurent Gizon, Marie-Jo Goupil, Miguel Mas-Hesse, Giampaolo Piotto, Don Pollacco, Roberto Ragazzoni, Gavin Ramsay, and Stéphane Udry

The ESA PLATO mission will provide unprecedented data to study the diversity of planets orbiting up to the habitable zone of bright Sun-like stars. PLATO will detect and characterise exoplanets using the transit method combined with ground-based radial velocity measurements, and study the host stars with asteroseismology. PLATO’s core observing sample consists of Sun-like stars of V < 11. For statistical studies, PLATO will also monitor a large sample of Sun-like stars with V < 13 and cool late-type dwarfs with V < 16. To benefit from PLATO’s advanced photometric capabilities, the general community will be invited to submit proposals on complementary science topics in the framework of a guest observer’s programme. The PLATO payload consists of four groups of six cameras each that overlap covering a total field of about 2150 deg² with four different sensitivities. Two additional cameras will observe the brightest stars (V < 8.5) in two-colours, and will be used as fine guidance sensor. PLATO is the third medium-class mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme, with a planned launch date in 2026. The satellite will operate in an orbit around the second Lagrange point, L2. We will present the status of the mission science definition and performance, and of the satellite and ground-segment developments.

How to cite: Heras, A. M., Rauer, H., Aerts, C., Deleuil, M., Gizon, L., Goupil, M.-J., Mas-Hesse, M., Piotto, G., Pollacco, D., Ragazzoni, R., Ramsay, G., and Udry, S.: The PLATO mission: Studying the diversity of exoplanets orbiting up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars , Europlanet Science Congress 2020, online, 21 Sep–9 Oct 2020, EPSC2020-396, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-396, 2020.