PLATO Mission Performance

Kurzfassung

PLATO, scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2027, is the 3rd Medium class ESAs mission, 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.

This talk will focus on the the drivers for PLATO Performance and present the most recent description of the status of noise budget and verification of main performance requirements (including field of view, photometric, and pointing performance) and estimates of the planet yield and stellar characterization performance.