PLATO: PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars
Abstract
PLATO is a project for a future space mission that is intended to be presented in response to the upcoming ESA "Cosmic Vision" announcement of opportunity. The science goal of PLATO is to provide a solid observational basis to understand the formation and evolution of stars and their planetary systems. This goal will be achieved by determining statistically the distribution of sizes and orbits of exoplanets, down to sub-earth sized planets and up to orbits at several AU. The observational concept of PLATO is based on ultra-high precision photometry from space. The strategy is to identify a sample of more than 100,000 bright stars, and to perform on all of them a long-term high precision monitoring in white-light visible photometry. This monitoring will be used on one hand to search for and characterize planetary transits in front of these stars, and on the other hand to detect and analyse oscillations of the same stars and thus probe their internal structure and dynamics. The requirements for such a mission are challenging: a very wide field-of-view, near 900 square degrees, as well as a large effective collecting area, of the order of one square metre, are necessary to monitor simultaneously a sufficiently large sample of bright stars, with a sufficient photometric precision. The duration of the monitoring must be of at least five years. We present an example instrumental concept compliant with these requirements. It involves a large number of small pupil optics, each one illuminating its own large format focal plane. Although challenging, this concept builds on heritage from previous missions and previous studies, and presents a low technological risk.
- Publication:
-
IAU Joint Discussion
- Pub Date:
- August 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006IAUJD..17E..32R