Watch live as Cambridge-powered CHEOPS mission heads into space to study exoplanets
A mission to learn more about planets beyond our solar system has successfully launched at the second attempt.
CHEOPS - the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite - will measure miniscule changes in brightness of a star, caused by the transit of a planet across it.
By targeting Earth- to Neptune-sized planets, it will provide clues as to the potential for life outside our solar system.
The European Space Agency mission, which was aided by the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, was due to launch on Tuesday morning (December 17) but was delayed on the launchpad after a red warning.
It successfully launched on Wednesday morning, heading into space on an Arianespace Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Dr Nicholas Walton, a CHEOPS board member and the institute’s lead on the project, told the Cambrige Independent in an interview last year: “CHEOPS only has a small field of view but will point at a star only when we know that an exoplanet will be transiting. Then it will move to the next interesting star, so it can always be observing transits.
“The idea is to look at bright stars – because you want to look at ones that are good for follow-up by other telescopes and facilities, to characterise the atmosphere of the planet, for instance. And we want to be sensitive to Earth-type planets – so planets up to a few Earth radii, around solar-type stars and with orbits more typical of Earth.”
CHEOPS will help ascertain if the exoplanets it observes are rocky, gassy, icy or even harbour oceans.
The satellite is hitching a ride with the Italian space agency’s Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation satellite and three CubeSats: ESA’s OPS-SAT and the French space agency’s CNES's EYE-SAT and ANGELS satellites.
Timetable for launch day
09.54 – Launch
10.17 – Separation of Cosmo-SkyMed
12.19 – Separation of CHEOPS
14.05 – Separation of OPS-SAT
14.11 – All CubeSats separated
14.15 – Official speeches
Around the time of CHEOPS separation, commentary will be provided in English by ESA’s project scientist Kate Isaak.
Read more
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