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Cheops
The European CHEOPS telescope (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) will look for transits or ‘mini-‘eclipses’ in the light curves of stars already thought to have planets orbiting around them, caused by the dip in brightness when their planet passes in front of them. Exoplanets thus detected—several of which are likely to be super-Earths less than 10 times more massive than our Earth—will then be analysed in fine detail to determine their size, mass, density and structure, and to ascertain if they have an atmosphere.
Selected for Europe’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme, the CHEOPS mission was proposed and is being led by a team of scientists at the University of Bern. It takes its inspiration from the European CoRoT mission for which CNES was prime contractor, using the same transit detection method and measuring techniques. Methods for processing raw data on the ground from the light curves ‘cleaned’ of noise and bias will be supplied by the LAM astrophysics laboratory in Marseille, like for CoRoT, with support from CNES.
CHEOPS is expected to observe between 500 and 1,000 nearby stars during its planned 3½-year mission.
Mission's news feed
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Unique exoplanet photobombs Cheops study of nearby star system
While exploring two exoplanets in a bright nearby star system, ESA’s exoplanet-hunting Cheops satellite has unexpectedly spotted the system’s third known planet crossing the face...
June 28, 2021
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ESA’s exoplanet watcher Cheops reveals unique planetary system
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...
January 25, 2021
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First results from Cheops: ESA’s exoplanet observer reveals extreme alien world
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. This...
September 29, 2020