CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS)
Why in News?
The Characterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is currently in the news for discovering an "inside-out" planetary system around the star LHS 1903, which challenges established theories of how planets form.
About
- Mission Overview: CHEOPS is the first European Space Agency (ESA) "Small-class" (S-class) mission, developed in partnership with Switzerland.
- Primary Objective: It is dedicated to studying bright, nearby stars already known to host exoplanets. Its goal is to make high-precision measurements of a planet's size (radius) as it transits its host star.
Key Capabilities
- Density Calculation: By combining precise size data from CHEOPS with mass data from ground-based telescopes, scientists can calculate a planet's bulk density to determine its composition (rocky, gaseous, or oceanic).
- Golden Targets: It identifies high-priority targets for more powerful observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).
Spacecraft & Instrument
- Instrument: A single specialized camera called a photometer (a 30cm aperture Ritchey–Chrétien telescope).
- Launch: Launched on 18 December 2019 from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard a Soyuz rocket.
- Orbit: Operates in a Sun-synchronous, dusk-dawn orbit at an altitude of approximately 700 km above Earth.
- Mission Status: Originally intended for a 3.5-year life, the mission has been extended through 2026, with a potential extension to 2029.
Notable Past Discoveries
- WASP-103b: Discovered a planet deformed into a rugby ball shape by intense tidal forces.
- Nu2 Lupi: Unexpectedly spotted a third transiting planet ("d") in a known system.
- Quaoar Ring: Detected an unexpected ring around the trans-Neptunian object Quaoar within our own solar system.
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