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“CHEOPS”
UK Leads New European Exoplanet Mission
Artist impression of an exoplanet system. (Credit: ESA)

PARIS (ESA PR) — The UK has secured a leading role in the development of a space telescope that will probe the atmospheres of distant worlds.

The mission – called Ariel – will study the gases that enshroud some 1000 extrasolar planets to address fundamental questions about how they formed and evolved.  

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  • June 18, 2022
Cheops Reveals a Rugby Ball-shaped Exoplanet
Artist impression of planet WASP-103b and its host star. (Credit: ESA)

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed that an exoplanet orbiting its host star within a day has a deformed shape more like that of a rugby ball than a sphere. This is the first time that the deformation of an exoplanet has been detected, offering new insights into the internal structure of these star-hugging planets.

The planet, known as WASP-103b is located in the constellation of Hercules. It has been deformed by the strong tidal forces between the planet and its host star WASP-103, which is about 200 degrees hotter and 1.7 times larger than the Sun.

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  • January 13, 2022
Airbus will Build ESA’s Ariel Exoplanet Hunting Satellite
Artist impression of ESA’s Ariel exoplanet satellite. (Credit: Airbus)

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA and Airbus have signed a contract to move forward with the design and construction of the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, Ariel, planned for launch in 2029.

Ariel is the third in a trio of dedicated exoplanet missions conceived by ESA focusing on various aspects of this rapidly evolving subject area. It will follow Cheops, which launched in 2019, and Plato, scheduled for launch in 2026.

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  • December 7, 2021
Spanish Astrobiology Center Participates in DART and Hera Planetary Defense Missions
DART mission (Credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory)

MADRID (Spanish Astrobiology Center) — Currently the Astrobiology Center (CAB, CSIC-INTA) is an integral part of the joint space mission of NASA and ESA called DART-Hera. Its objective consists of sending two spacecraft to a binary asteroid system known as Didymos 65803 and thus validating the impact techniques in order to avoid future collisions with potentially dangerous asteroids for our planet.

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  • November 29, 2021
Voyage 2050 Sets Sail: ESA Chooses Future Science Mission Themes
Artist impressions of the themes proposed for ESA’s next series of Large-class missions, as part of the Voyage 2050 plan. The themes are moons of the giant planets, temperate exoplanets to the Milky Way, and new physical probes of the early Universe. (Credit: ESA/Science Office)

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA’s large-class science missions for the timeframe 2035-2050 will focus on moons of the giant Solar System planets, temperate exoplanets or the galactic ecosystem, and new physical probes of the early Universe.

“The selection of the Voyage 2050 themes is a pivotal moment for ESA’s science programme, and for the future generation of space scientists and engineers,” says Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science.

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  • June 14, 2021
ESA’s Exoplanet Watcher Cheops Reveals Unique Planetary System
Artist impression of the TOI-178 planetary system. (Credit: ESA)

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA’s exoplanet mission  Cheops has revealed a unique planetary system consisting of six exoplanets, five of which are locked in a rare rhythmic dance as they orbit their central star. The sizes and masses of the planets, however, don’t follow such an orderly pattern. This finding challenges current theories of planet formation.

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  • January 26, 2021
First Results from Cheops: ESA’s Exoplanet Observer Reveals Extreme Alien World
Artist impression of exoplanet WASP-189b orbiting its host star. (Credit: ESA)

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA’s new exoplanet mission, Cheops, has found a nearby planetary system to contain one of the hottest and most extreme extra-solar planets known to date: WASP-189 b. The finding, the very first from the mission, demonstrates Cheops’ unique ability to shed light on the Universe around us by revealing the secrets of these alien worlds.

Launched in December 2019, Cheops (the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite) is designed to observe nearby stars known to host planets. By ultra-precisely measuring changes in the levels of light coming from these systems as the planets orbit their stars, Cheops can initially characterise these planets — and, in turn, increase our understanding of how they form and evolve.

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  • September 29, 2020
Cheops Observes its First Exoplanets, Ready for Science
An image of the star known as HD 88111 taken by Cheops. The spacecraft took an image of this star every 30 seconds for 47 consecutive hours. The images taken by Cheops are intentionally blurred: this deliberate de-focusing is at the core of the mission’s observing strategy, which improves the measurement precision by spreading the light coming from distant stars over many pixels of its detector. (Credit: Cheops ESA/Airbus/CHEOPS Mission Consortium)

PARIS (ESA PR) — Cheops, ESA’s new exoplanet mission, has successfully completed its almost three months of in-orbit commissioning, exceeding expectations for its performance. The satellite, which will commence routine science operations by the end of April, has already obtained promising observations of known exoplanet-hosting stars, with many exciting discoveries to come.

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  • April 18, 2020
Airbus Successfully Completes In-orbit Commissioning of CHEOPS Exoplanet Satellite
CHEOPS space telescope (Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab)

MADRID, 26 March 2020 (Airbus PR) – Airbus has received confirmation from ESA of a successful end to the In Orbit Commissioning (IOC) of CHEOPS after the IOC review yesterday. This critical phase was performed by Airbus in Spain with the support of the Instrument Team (University of Bern), Mission Operation Centre (INTA), Science Operation Centre (University of Geneva) and ESA.

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  • March 28, 2020
Video: ESA’s Highlights of 2019

Video Caption: As the year comes to a close, it is once again time to look back and reflect on some of the achievements and highlights of European spaceflight. The new Gaia star catalogue and the launch of Cheops are keeping ESA at the forefront of space science, as will Solar Orbiter, being prepared for launch next year. The Copernicus programme continues to be the largest Earth observation programme in the […]

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  • December 31, 2019