Exoplanets - Finding other Earths with the PLATO mission

Kurzfassung

PLATO, the 3rd Medium class ESA mission in the Cosmic Vision Program, is designed to detect and characterize extrasolar planets by photometrically monitoring a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets around bright stars, including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. PLATO will also study the (host) stars using asteroseismology, allowing us to determine the stellar properties with high accuracy (radius, mass, age), substantially enhancing our knowledge of stellar structure and evolution. With the complement of radial velocity observations from ground, planets will be characterized for their radius and mass (hence density), and age with high accuracy. PLATO will provide us with a catalogue of well-characterized exoplanets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation theories and to better understand planet evolution. In addition, PLATO´s Guest Observer program will allow for a large number of complementary science cases, based on proposals from the community. The Guest Observer call will open in early Spring 2026.

PLATO is scheduled for a launch date Q1/2027. The payload instrument consists of 26 cameras with 12cm aperture each. For at least four years, the mission will perform high-precision photometric measurements of about 150.000 stars per field, with 2 long pointings foreseen.

At this time, the development of the payload flight hardware is completed and the first target field selected. Final spacecraft performance tests are running as well as the preparation of the data pipelines and operations. This talk will present an overview of the PLATO mission and its development current status.