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CHEOPS
CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite) is a European space telescope. Its objective is to determine the size of known extrasolar planets, which will allow the estimation of their mass, density, composition and their formation. Launched on 18 December 2019, it is the first Small-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision science programme.
The small satellite features an optical Ritchey–Chrétien telescope with an aperture of 30 cm, mounted on a standard small satellite platform. It was placed into a Sun-synchronous orbit of about 700 km altitude.
Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered by the end of the 2010s; some have minimum mass measurements from the radial velocity method while others that are seen to transit their parent stars have measures of their physical size. Few exoplanets to date have highly accurate measures for both mass and radius, limiting the ability to study the variety in bulk density that would provide clues as to what materials they are made of and their formation history.
For the planned mission duration of 3.5 years, CHEOPS is to measure the size of known transiting exoplanets orbiting bright and nearby stars, as well as search for predicted transits of exoplanets previously discovered via radial velocity. Scientists behind the project expect these well-characterised transiting exoplanets to be prime targets for observatories such as James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) or the extremely large telescopes.
In 2023, the mission was extended to 2026. During the extended mission CHEOPS is expected to also search for exomoons.
Organized as a partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Swiss Space Office, CHEOPS was selected in October 2012 from among 26 proposals as the first S-class ("small") space mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme. ESA is the mission architect and responsible for the spacecraft and launch opportunity procurement. The project is led by the Center for Space and Habitability at the University of Bern, Switzerland, with contributions from other Swiss and European universities. The principal investigator for the science instrument is Willy Benz at the University of Bern and the principal scientist from ESA is Kate Isaak. After a competition phase, Airbus Defence and Space in Spain was selected as the spacecraft builder. The ESA mission cost is capped at €50 million. Media Lario S.r.l. (Italy) was responsible for the optical finishing of the primary optical element.
CHEOPS launched on board of a Soyuz-STA launch vehicle on 18 December 2019, at 08:54:20 UTC from Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana. CHEOPS separated after two hours and 23 minutes from lift-off. The primary payload was the first satellite of ASI's COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation constellation, CSG 1. The launcher also deployed three CubeSats, including ESA's OPS-SAT. CHEOPS went into a 712 km (442 mi) altitude Sun-synchronous polar orbit.
After the cover of the telescope was opened on 29 January 2020, CHEOPS took its first light image on 7 February 2020. The image is centred on the star HD 70843, a yellow-white star located around 150 light years away. The star was selected because of its brightness and position on the sky. The stars in the image are blurry, which is intended. The defocused mirror distributes the light of the star over many pixels of the detector, making the measurements of starlight more precise. The first light images were better than it was expected from tests in the laboratory. The images were smoother and more symmetrical, which could reduce noise caused by the detector and the spacecraft.
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CHEOPS
CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite) is a European space telescope. Its objective is to determine the size of known extrasolar planets, which will allow the estimation of their mass, density, composition and their formation. Launched on 18 December 2019, it is the first Small-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision science programme.
The small satellite features an optical Ritchey–Chrétien telescope with an aperture of 30 cm, mounted on a standard small satellite platform. It was placed into a Sun-synchronous orbit of about 700 km altitude.
Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered by the end of the 2010s; some have minimum mass measurements from the radial velocity method while others that are seen to transit their parent stars have measures of their physical size. Few exoplanets to date have highly accurate measures for both mass and radius, limiting the ability to study the variety in bulk density that would provide clues as to what materials they are made of and their formation history.
For the planned mission duration of 3.5 years, CHEOPS is to measure the size of known transiting exoplanets orbiting bright and nearby stars, as well as search for predicted transits of exoplanets previously discovered via radial velocity. Scientists behind the project expect these well-characterised transiting exoplanets to be prime targets for observatories such as James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) or the extremely large telescopes.
In 2023, the mission was extended to 2026. During the extended mission CHEOPS is expected to also search for exomoons.
Organized as a partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Swiss Space Office, CHEOPS was selected in October 2012 from among 26 proposals as the first S-class ("small") space mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme. ESA is the mission architect and responsible for the spacecraft and launch opportunity procurement. The project is led by the Center for Space and Habitability at the University of Bern, Switzerland, with contributions from other Swiss and European universities. The principal investigator for the science instrument is Willy Benz at the University of Bern and the principal scientist from ESA is Kate Isaak. After a competition phase, Airbus Defence and Space in Spain was selected as the spacecraft builder. The ESA mission cost is capped at €50 million. Media Lario S.r.l. (Italy) was responsible for the optical finishing of the primary optical element.
CHEOPS launched on board of a Soyuz-STA launch vehicle on 18 December 2019, at 08:54:20 UTC from Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana. CHEOPS separated after two hours and 23 minutes from lift-off. The primary payload was the first satellite of ASI's COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation constellation, CSG 1. The launcher also deployed three CubeSats, including ESA's OPS-SAT. CHEOPS went into a 712 km (442 mi) altitude Sun-synchronous polar orbit.
After the cover of the telescope was opened on 29 January 2020, CHEOPS took its first light image on 7 February 2020. The image is centred on the star HD 70843, a yellow-white star located around 150 light years away. The star was selected because of its brightness and position on the sky. The stars in the image are blurry, which is intended. The defocused mirror distributes the light of the star over many pixels of the detector, making the measurements of starlight more precise. The first light images were better than it was expected from tests in the laboratory. The images were smoother and more symmetrical, which could reduce noise caused by the detector and the spacecraft.
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