Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars: PLATO

Kurzfassung

Up to now, no Earth-like planet in the habitable zone around a sun-like star has been found. The majority of the detected exoplanets lack the full set of bulk parameters as radius, mass, stellar type and age. That is what PLATO is designed for: to find terrestrial planets in the habitable zone and determine their bulk densities with a precision never reached before. PLATO is a M-class mission in ESAs Cosmic Vision Programme 2015-2025. The international PLATO Consortium is lead by DLR (Prof. Heike Rauer). It will be launched in 2026 with an Ariane-6 rocket from Kourou, French Guyana. The mission duration is 4 years, an extension up to 6 years is possible. There are consumables for 8 years.