PLATO (spacecraft)

Planetary transits and star oscillations PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is a mission proposed by ESA for a space observatory that will use a group of photometers to discover and characterize extrasolar planets of all sizes and types around cool dwarfs (like our Sun) and sub-giant stars.

It will differ from the Kepler mission and the COROT mission in that it will study bright stars (between magnitudes 8 and 11) making it easier to confirm the findings using the tracking of radial velocity measurements. It will have a much wider field of view than the Kepler mission (which has 100 square degrees) allowing you to study a larger sample of stars. The different versions of the project plan to observe the stars in an area of ​​the sky of around 1250-3600 degrees, which can be followed by light curves of up to 260,000 dwarfs and sub-giants (Kepler has 25,000 stars of this type in your visual field). Launching

The satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2024 on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket, to the point of lagrange L2 between Earth and the Sun.

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