Author Topic: ESA - CHEOPS updates  (Read 47838 times)

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
ESA - CHEOPS updates
« on: 09/24/2013 08:38 pm »
CHEOPS - CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite

CHEOPS - CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite - will be the first mission dedicated to searching for exoplanetary transits by performing ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. It will provide the unique capability of determining accurate radii for a subset of those planets, in the super-Earth to Neptune mass range, for which the mass has already been estimated using ground-based spectroscopic surveys. CHEOPS will also provide precision radii for new planets of Neptune-size and smaller that are discovered by the next generation of ground-based transit surveys.

On 19 October 2012 CHEOPS was selected for study as the first S-class mission in Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. Formal adoption of the mission is expected in late 2013, with launch planned for 2017.

http://sci.esa.int/cosmic-vision/49469-cheops/

-----------
CHEOPS web page: http://cheops.unibe.ch

ESA - S class mission - 2017 - candidates: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28309.0
-----------

Image credit: University of Bern
« Last Edit: 10/25/2016 05:01 pm by bolun »

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #1 on: 09/24/2013 08:40 pm »
ESA selects SSTL to design Exoplanet misión

11 Sep 2013

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the competitive design phase of CHEOPS - a satellite that will improve mankind’s understanding of exoplanets (planets orbiting distant stars outside our solar system). The contractor selection for the implementation phase is planned by mid-2014 and the launch is scheduled late 2017.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/ukspaceagency/news-and-events/2013/Sep/cheops

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #2 on: 01/31/2014 01:01 pm »

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #3 on: 07/16/2014 08:06 pm »
CHEOPS exoplanet mission meets key milestones en route to 2017 launch

11 July 2014

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/54321-cheops-exoplanet-mission-meets-key-milestones-en-route-to-2017-launch/

Quote
ESA’s first small Science Programme mission is ready for construction. The implementation phase has started, meaning that the spacecraft has gone from selection to implementation in less than 18 months.

Quote
CHEOPS was selected by ESA in October 2012 from 26 proposals that were submitted in response to the announcement of the small mission programme. It was officially adopted into the Science Programme in February this year. Capped to an ESA cost of €50 million, it is being developed in collaboration with the Swiss Space Office (SSO), a division of the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), and the University of Bern, Switzerland. The Swiss organisations lead the consortium of 11 ESA Member States contributing to the mission and represented in the CHEOPS Science Team. The spacecraft will be built by Airbus Defence and Space, Spain.

Quote
CHEOPS will most likely be launched as a passenger on a Soyuz or Vega launcher from Kourou at the end of 2017.

Image credit: ESA - C. Carreau

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #4 on: 09/23/2014 03:48 pm »
Announcement of opportunity for membership in the CHEOPS science team

19 September 2014

The Characterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is a small mission in the ESA Science Programme. Proposals are solicited for membership in the CHEOPS Science Team. Scientists from institutions located in ESA Member States are invited to apply. The deadline for receipt of applications is 22 October 2014 (12:00 noon CEST).

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/53822-announcement-of-opportunity-for-membership-in-the-cheops-science-team/

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #5 on: 05/08/2015 01:07 pm »
http://sci.esa.int/cheops/55889-send-your-drawing-into-space-with-cheops/

Quote
ESA and its mission partners are inviting children to submit drawings that will be miniaturised and engraved on two plaques that will be put on the satellite.

« Last Edit: 05/08/2015 01:17 pm by bolun »

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #6 on: 07/14/2015 09:41 am »
#1: CHEOPS spacecraft hardware delivery

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/56102-1-cheops-spacecraft-hardware-delivery/

Quote
CHEOPS is now moving steadily from a paper design to the hardware phase. Over the last couple of months the Instrument Consortium, led by the University of Bern, has taken delivery of the first hardware from Airbus Defence and Space (ADS)–Spain, the prime contractor for the CHEOPS platform. These deliveries included the Platform Simulator, as well as the platform panels for instrument assembly and handling, the Star Tracker Optical Head Assemblies with their associated multi-layer insulation (MLI), and the support structure for the Baffle Cover Assembly.

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #7 on: 10/02/2015 02:13 pm »
CHEOPS spacecraft structural model

The spacecraft Structural Model, composed of the instrument Structural and Thermal Model and the platform Structural Qualification Model, ready for the start of the environmental test campaign at ADS-Spain.

The spacecraft Structural Model will undergo a series of mechanical tests, including sine vibration, acoustic and shock tests.

Related article: #2: CHEOPS prepares for first spacecraft test campaign

Image credit: ADS-Spain

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/56533-cheops-spacecraft-structural-model/


Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #8 on: 11/13/2015 02:09 pm »
CHEOPS in front of the LEAF acoustic chamber at ESTEC

The CHEOPS spacecraft on its ground support trolley, shortly before being placed in the Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) test chamber at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on 5 November 2015.

Related article: #3 Simulated sound of launch for CHEOPS

Image credit: ESA - C. Carreau

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/56807-cheops-in-front-of-the-leaf-acoustic-chamber-at-estec/

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #9 on: 11/15/2015 12:28 pm »
Cheops entering acoustic chamber
 
A test model of ESA’s exoplanet-watching Cheops satellite being placed in an acoustic chamber in Europe’s largest spacecraft testing centre, helping to ensure the flight version can endure the extreme conditions of a rocket launch.
 
The Characterising ExOPlanet Satellite is ESA’s first small science mission. Selected in October 2012, it will track the crossings of known planets across the face of their parent stars, to make detailed deductions of their size and composition. The telescope will detect tiny shifts in stellar brightness with ultra-high precision.
 
Once the tests are completed, this ‘structural qualification model’ will be reconfigured as the actual satellite, helping to meet a tight development schedule that is aiming for launch readiness at the end of 2017 and a shared launch opportunity in the first half of 2018.
 
Cheops is seen here being moved into ESA’s Large European Acoustic Facility, capable of subjecting satellites to the same noise as a rocket produces as it takes off and flies through the atmosphere.
 
The chamber is an integral part of ESA’s ESTEC test centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, a collection of spaceflight simulation facilities under a single roof.
 
One wall of the chamber is embedded with a set of enormous sound horns. Nitrogen shot through the horns can produce a range of noise up to more than 154 decibels, like standing close to multiple jets taking off.
 
Credit: ESA–C. Carreau
Jacques :-)

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #10 on: 09/30/2016 01:44 pm »
#5: STEADY PROGRESS FOR CHEOPS

15 September 2016 22:38

The CHEOPS mission continues to make steady progress with a number of milestones being successfully met. In the past few months these have included the completion of the System Critical Design Review, the first EMC testing of the instrument, and the first release of the mission operations system.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/58294-integration-of-cheops-flight-equipment/

Image credit: ADS-Spain

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #11 on: 12/29/2016 10:39 am »
#6: CHEOPS SOLAR ARRAYS TESTED AND BUILT

16 December 2016 11:26

Over the last 10 months, the CHEOPS solar cell assemblies have been put through their paces in the test facilities at industry and in the Solar Generator Laboratory of the Power Systems Division (TEC-EP) at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) as part of the qualification campaign. In parallel, the flight solar arrays have been manufactured and delivered.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/58643-6-cheops-solar-arrays-tested-and-built/

Image credit:  ESA – C. Carreau

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #12 on: 05/06/2017 07:17 am »
#7: CHEOPS TELESCOPE ARRIVES AT NEW HOME

04 May 2017 10:15

A major milestone for the CHEOPS mission was passed on 28 April 2017, when the telescope flight model was delivered to the University of Bern by Leonardo-Finmeccanica, on behalf of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/59012-7-cheops-telescope-arrives-at-new-home/

Image credit: Leonardo-Finmeccanica

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #13 on: 07/15/2017 07:28 pm »
#8: PREPARING THE CHEOPS SPACECRAFT PLATFORM AND SIMULATING MISSION OPERATIONS

12 July 2017 11:54

In our previous update, we reported on the delivery of the CHEOPS telescope from Florence to Bern. While the scientific payload is being assembled in Switzerland, work in Spain has focused on preparing the spacecraft platform that will carry the payload and provide power, propulsion, communications, and thermal control.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/59323-8-preparing-the-cheops-spacecraft-platform-and-simulating-mission-operations/

Image credit: ADS Spain

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #14 on: 11/03/2017 07:29 am »
Launch your design with Cheops

2 November 2017

ESA is offering graphic designers and artists a unique opportunity to feature their work on the rocket carrying the Cheops satellite.

The design will be placed on the Soyuz rocket’s fairing, the tough outer shell that protects the satellite during launch and as it passes through the atmosphere into space.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Launch_your_design_with_Cheops

Image credit: ESA

Offline Mike Jones

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 101
  • Latvia
  • Liked: 34
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #15 on: 11/03/2017 05:30 pm »
So CHEOPS will fly on a Soyuz from CSG.

Offline russianhalo117

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8755
  • Liked: 4672
  • Likes Given: 768
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #16 on: 11/03/2017 05:52 pm »
So CHEOPS will fly on a Soyuz from CSG.
Yes:
Arianespace launch schedule: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=6114.msg1728089#msg1728089
2018:
December - CSG-1 (COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation-1), CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) - Soyuz ST-B/Fregat-MT - Kourou ELS (or H1 2019)
« Last Edit: 11/04/2017 12:09 am by russianhalo117 »

Offline jebbo

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 940
  • Cambridge, UK
  • Liked: 608
  • Likes Given: 309
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #17 on: 11/13/2017 06:27 pm »
Quote
Calling all graphic designers & artists! Submit design to  feature on the rocket carrying #CHEOPS satellite 🚀  https://t.co/VZugX77wTV https://t.co/UUcFtmCHBb

https://twitter.com/esa/status/926120288965812231

--- Tony

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #18 on: 12/09/2017 02:04 pm »
#9: THE CHEOPS SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENT IS COMPLETE

06 December 2017 13:15

The scientific instrument at the heart of the CHEOPS mission has been fully assembled, marking an important milestone in the development of this small, fast-track exoplanet-characterising mission.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/59825-9-the-cheops-scientific-instrument-is-complete/

Image credit: University of Bern

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #19 on: 12/19/2017 08:44 am »
#10: IT'S GETTING REAL: TESTING FLIGHT HARDWARE WITH MISSION CONTROL CODE

18 December 2017 10:08

With the flight models of the CHEOPS spacecraft and telescope maturing, crucial tests can now be run with real hardware in place of simulations. The latest such tests involved operating the payload with the Mission Control System to test and validate real operational command sequences.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/59883-10-it-s-getting-real-testing-flight-hardware-with-mission-control-code/

Image credit: Airbus DS Space, Madrid

Online Salo

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11329
  • Odessa, Ukraine
  • Liked: 4227
  • Likes Given: 3524
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #20 on: 12/19/2017 12:01 pm »
https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/943090673963630592
Quote
Peter B. de Selding‏ @pbdes
Exoplanet hunter CHEOPS sat, built by @AirbusSpace for @esa, to launch late 2018/early 2019 on @ArianeGroup @Arianespace Soyuz from Europe's spaceport. To launch w/ Italy's 1st 2d-gen Cosmo-SkyMed radar sat. CHEOPS is 300kg, orbit 700km, inclination 98deg.

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #21 on: 03/31/2018 05:33 pm »
CHEOPS fairing sticker winning design

This colourful design capturing the scientific essence of ESA's upcoming CHEOPS exoplanet mission – characterising planets as they transit in front of their host star – has been selected as the winning design that will be featured on the rocket that will launch the satellite into space.

The design was one of over 300 submitted to the competition that offered graphic designers and artists the unique opportunity to feature their work on the rocket that will launch CHEOPS – the CHaracterising ExOplanets Satellite – to Earth orbit.

The design was created by Denis Vrenko of Celje, Slovenia, a 25 year-old graphic designer and final-year architecture student at the University of Ljubljana.

- Related article: Winning exoplanet rocket sticker-selected

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/60129-cheops-fairing-sticker-winning-design/

Image credit: ESA/D. Vrenko

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #22 on: 05/06/2018 07:50 pm »
#11: PUTTING THINGS TOGETHER: THE CHEOPS SCIENCE INSTRUMENT ARRIVES IN MADRID

03 May 2018 14:00

Members of the CHEOPS consortium could be proud of their achievement as the science instrument of the upcoming exoplanet mission left Bern on its journey to Madrid last month.

The science instrument and its tailor-made handling equipment left Switzerland by truck in six containers, designed to provide protection from shock, moisture and dust, on 10 April 2018. Its safe arrival in Spain the following day marked a key milestone for the CHEOPS project and enabled Airbus Defence and Space Spain, the prime contractor that has designed the spacecraft, to integrate the science instrument and the spacecraft platform and begin test activities.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/60249-11-putting-things-together-the-cheops-science-instrument-arrives-in-madrid/

Image credit: Airbus Defence and Space Spain
« Last Edit: 05/30/2018 06:13 pm by jacqmans »

Offline Star One

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13997
  • UK
  • Liked: 3974
  • Likes Given: 220
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #23 on: 05/08/2018 03:28 pm »
Preparing CHEOPS


Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #24 on: 05/15/2018 08:28 pm »
N° 9–2018: CALL FOR MEDIA: MEET EUROPE’S EXOPLANET SATELLITE CHEOPS

13 May 2018

Media are invited to join experts of the Characterising Exoplanets Satellite, Cheops, at Airbus Defence and Space in Madrid, Spain, for a unique opportunity to visit the spacecraft in the clean room on 22 May.

Cheops will make observations of exoplanet-hosting stars to measure small changes in their brightness due to the transit of a planet across the star disc. The information will help to reveal the size of planets circling other stars, especially those in the Earth-to-Neptune mass range – a first step to characterising planets outside our Solar System.

The science instrument that will make these measurements recently arrived at Airbus in Madrid, following testing at the University of Bern in Switzerland, for integration with the spacecraft platform. This includes being combined with the solar panels, thrusters, radio transmitters and reaction wheels needed for power, propulsion, communications and attitude control, respectively.

The completed satellite is currently undergoing essential tests and checks at Airbus as part of launch preparations. It will only be there for a few weeks before moving on for final thermal, vibration and acoustic testing in various locations across Europe. Final checks will be conducted when it returns in October, and then it will be packed and prepared for shipment to Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Cheops, which is implemented as a partnership between ESA and Switzerland, is on track to be ready for launch by the end of the year.

This event offers one of the first – and last – opportunities for media to view the complete satellite before its launch.

Programme

(All times CEST)

10:30 Arrival to Antares Room at Airbus

11:00 Welcome by José Guillamón, Head of Site and Airbus Space Systems in Spain

11:05 Nicola Rando, Cheops project manager

Introduction to Cheops and status update

11:15 Andrés Borges, Cheops Programme Manager at Airbus

Insights from industry and future steps towards launch and in-orbit commissioning

11:25 Ignasi Ribas, Institut de Ciències de l’Espai & Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Barcelona

Cheops science and contribution to exoplanet studies

11:35Eva María Vega Carrasco, Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Madrid

Mission operations

11:45 Q&A

12:00 onwards

Photo and video opportunity in the clean room to view Cheops.

Accreditation

Media can register by writing to [email protected] and will be asked to complete a registration form. Photo and video cameras are also to be registered.

Location

Airbus (Antares Room)
Avenida de Aragón 404
28022 Madrid

More about Cheops: http://sci.esa.int/cheops/
« Last Edit: 10/26/2018 02:40 pm by jacqmans »

Online Chris Bergin

Support NSF via L2 -- Help improve NSF -- Site Rules/Feedback/Updates
**Not a L2 member? Whitelist this forum in your adblocker to support the site and ensure full functionality.**

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #26 on: 07/07/2018 03:34 pm »
The integrated CHEOP satellite

The integrated CHEOPS satellite in the cleanroom of Airbus Defence and Space Spain in Madrid, before the installation of the solar arrays.

The spacecraft will be shipped in July to Airbus EVT in Toulouse, France, to undergo thermal tests. It will then travel on to RUAG in Zurich, Switzerland, for vibration tests, and further to ESA's technical centre in The Netherlands, for acoustic and electromagnetic compatibility tests. Finally, it will come back to Airbus Defence and Space Spain in Madrid, where the last system validation test will be performed to check readiness for the launch and early operations phase of the mission.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/60487-the-integrated-cheops-satellite/

Related article:

- #12: From star positions to images: CHEOPS operations centres pull together

Image credit: Airbus 2018

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #27 on: 07/09/2018 05:05 pm »
High Res.
Jacques :-)

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #28 on: 08/29/2018 06:19 am »
Cheops plaques

Two titanium plaques etched with thousands of miniaturised drawings made by children have been fixed to the CHaracterizing ExOPlanets Satellite, Cheops. Each plaque measures nearly 18 cm across and 24 cm high.

The plaques, prepared by a team at the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Burgdorf, Switzerland, were unveiled in a dedicated ceremony at RUAG on 27 August 2018.

Related article: Artwork unveiled on exoplanet satellite

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/08/Cheops_plaques

Image credit: G. Bucher – Bern University of Applied Sciences

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #29 on: 09/01/2018 12:05 pm »
#13: CHEOPS – CHILLED AND CHECKED, SHAKEN AND NOT STIRRED

31 August 2018 10:00

This summer, the CHEOPS satellite breezed through thermal tests in France and vibration tests in Switzerland, demonstrating that it is ready to operate in the extreme cold of space and also fit to withstand the mechanical stresses of launch.



http://sci.esa.int/cheops/60575-13-cheops-chilled-and-checked-shaken-and-not-stirred/

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #30 on: 09/26/2018 12:27 pm »
Cheops inside LEAF chamber

ESA’s exoplanet-surveying Cheops satellite, with its distinctive main telescope instrument, seen being prepared for testing within ESA’s Large European Acoustic Facility (LEAF) at the Agency’s ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands this month.

LEAF can subject satellites to the same volume of noise a launcher produces as it takes off and flies through the atmosphere. One wall of the chamber – which stands 11 m wide by 9 m deep and 16.4 m high – incorporates a set of enormous sound horns. Nitrogen shot through the horns can produce a range of noise up to more than 154 decibels, like standing close to multiple jets taking off.

ESA’s Cheops satellite will measure the sizes of known exoplanets by detecting tiny fluctuations in the light of their parent stars. Cheops, or ‘CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite’, combines a state-of-the-art scientific performance with a compact design – 1.5 m by 1.4 m by 1.5 m in size, it weighs in at about 300 kg fully fuelled – allowing it to be flown as a secondary passenger on a Soyuz launcher inside its ASAP-S adapter.
 
A test version of Cheops – its ‘structural qualification model’ plus ‘instrument structural and thermal model’ – underwent previous LEAF testing back in November 2015. Once its acoustic testing was complete this final Cheops ‘flight model’ went on to electromagnetic compatibility testing in ESA’s Maxwell facility.

Once its test campaign is complete, the satellite is scheduled for launch readiness at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana early next year.
 
Credits: ESA - G. Porter
Jacques :-)

Online eeergo

-DaviD-

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #32 on: 10/26/2018 02:42 pm »
Cheops_in_Maxwell_chamber

ESA’s exoplanet-characterising Cheops satellite being prepared for electromagnetic compatibility testing inside the Maxwell chamber at ESTEC, the Agency’s technical heart in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Once the chamber’s main door is sealed, Maxwell’s 12 m-high metal walls form a ‘Faraday Cage’, blocking electromagnetic signals from outside. The ‘anechoic’ foam pyramids covering its interior absorb internal signals – as well as sound – to prevent any reflection, mimicking the infinite void of space.

Once switched on Cheops was illuminated with a two-way radio beam. The satellite was then rotated and tilted through various angles to detect any potentially harmful electromagnetic ‘cross-talk’ that might occur between its subsystems. Testing also ruled out any radio emissions arising from the satellite that might interfere with its launcher during its rise to orbit.

ESA’s Cheops satellite will measure the sizes of known exoplanets by detecting tiny fluctuations in the light of their parent stars. Cheops, or ‘CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite’, combines a state-of-the-art scientific performance with a compact design – 1.5 m by 1.4 m by 1.5 m in size, it weighs in at about 300 kg fully fuelled – allowing it to be flown as a secondary passenger on a Soyuz launcher inside its ASAP-S adapter.

Last month, once its ESTEC test campaign was complete, Cheops left ESTEC for Airbus Defence & Space’s facility in Madrid to undergo further evaluation, including testing of its solar arrays, a ‘leak check’ of its propulsion module and a fit-check with its launcher adapter.

Once all tests are done, the satellite is planned for launch next year from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

ESA–G. Porter
Jacques :-)

Online zubenelgenubi

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11159
  • Arc to Arcturus, then Spike to Spica
  • Sometimes it feels like Trantor in the time of Hari Seldon
  • Liked: 7392
  • Likes Given: 72410
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #33 on: 10/27/2018 04:04 pm »
Update from SFN launch schedule page, updated October 25:

CSG 1 and CHEOPS launch listed for "early 2019."
Support your local planetarium! (COVID-panic and forward: Now more than ever.) My current avatar is saying "i wants to go uppies!" Yes, there are God-given rights. Do you wish to gainsay the Declaration of Independence?

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #34 on: 11/24/2018 08:53 am »
Exoplanet mission launch slot announced

23 November 2018

The Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, CHEOPS, will target 15 October to 14 November 2019 for launch.

CHEOPS will lift off on a Soyuz rocket operated by Arianespace from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, sharing the ride into space with a satellite that is part of the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed constellation. The two satellites will separate in turn into their own orbits soon after ascent, with CHEOPS operating in a low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 700 km.

http://sci.esa.int/cheops/60949-exoplanet-mission-launch-slot-announced/

Offline Rik ISS-fan

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1519
  • the Netherlands
  • Liked: 617
  • Likes Given: 211
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #35 on: 11/24/2018 06:20 pm »
So the launch has been delayed for nearly a year.  :o :-X

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #36 on: 03/12/2019 08:17 am »
Cheops in the clean room

The copper-coloured baffle cover of our Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, in the clean room at Airbus Defence and Space Spain, Madrid.

After completing spacecraft testing, the satellite has passed a very important review that determined it is ready to fly. Cheops will be stored in Madrid for a few months before being shipped to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana; launch is scheduled in the time slot between 15 October and 14 November.

The baffle cover pictured in this image is designed to protect the satellite’s scientific instrument – a powerful camera, or photometer – during assembly and launch. Once in space, the cover will open, allowing light from stars to enter the telescope.

Cheops will make observations of exoplanet-hosting stars to measure small changes in their brightness due to the transit of a planet across the star's disc, targeting in particular stars hosting planets in the Earth-to-Neptune size range. The information will enable precise measurements of the sizes of the orbiting planets to be made: combined with measurements of the planet masses, this will provide an estimate of their mean density – a first step to characterising planets outside our Solar System.

Cheops paves the way for the next generation of ESA’s exoplanet satellites, with two further missions – Plato and Ariel– planned for the next decade to tackle different aspects of the evolving field of exoplanet science.

Credits: ESA – S. Corvaja
Jacques :-)

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #37 on: 03/19/2019 02:08 pm »
Press Release N°02-2019

19 March 2019

Call for media: Cheops ready for launch in October

The Cheops mission, ESA’s first mission dedicated to the study of exoplanets, is scheduled to lift off on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, within the launch slot 15 October – 14 November 2019.

Media representatives are invited to apply for accreditation to visit the spacecraft, which is in the clean rooms of Airbus in Madrid, on 29 March, before it goes into storage ahead of its shipment to Kourou later this year.

The satellite will observe bright stars that are known to host exoplanets, in particular those in the Earth-to-Neptune size range. By targeting known planets, Cheops can plan exactly where in the sky to point and when to catch the exoplanet as it transits across the disk of its host star. Its ability to observe multiple transits of each planet will enable scientists to achieve the high-precision transit signatures that are needed to measure the sizes of planets in this range.

The combination of the precise sizes determined by Cheops with masses determined from other measurements will be used to establish the bulk density of the planets, placing constraints on their composition. These data, together with information on the host stars and the planet orbits, will provide key insight into the formation and evolutionary history of planets larger than Earth and smaller than Neptune.

Cheops is an ESA mission implemented in partnership with Switzerland and a number of other Member States, including Spain.

Experts will present the mission, its technical challenges and scientific goals during a dedicated programme for media at Airbus. The spacecraft will be visible through a large window. Because of safety regulations, only few TV broadcasters will be allowed into the cleanroom.

The event will be conducted in English language.

Provisional schedule at Airbus Madrid, 29 March

(all times in local CET)

14:30   Doors open
15:00   Fernando Varela, Head of Site and Airbus Space Systems in Spain – Welcome
15:05   Rafael Rodrigo, General Secretary for Coordination of Science Policy of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities – The importance of Space Science in Spain
15:10   Juan Carlos Cortes, Director of European Programmes, Space and Technological Return at CDTI - The role of Spain in Cheops
15:15   Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science – Cheops: the first of three ESA exoplanet missions and its importance for our science programme
15:25   Nicola Rando, ESA Cheops project manager – Status of the project and what lies ahead
15:35   Andres Borges, Airbus Cheops project manager – Steps towards launch
15:45   Ignasi Ribas, Cheops science team, Spanish National Research Council & Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia – The role of Cheops within the current challenges of exoplanet science
15:55   Christopher Broeg, Consortium Cheops Project Manager, University of Bern –The science of Cheops, the Cheops instrument and operations
16:05   Q&A
16:30   Photo and video opportunity of the satellite situated in the clean room
Jacques :-)

Offline Tywin

Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #38 on: 03/19/2019 05:36 pm »
Recent interview about the mission

The knowledge is power...Everything is connected...
The Turtle continues at a steady pace ...

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #39 on: 03/26/2019 08:08 pm »
Exoplanet mission timeline – Cheops

The Cheops mission in the context of previous and future space missions dedicated to exoplanet science (top) and exoplanet-sensitive missions (bottom).

The Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, will observe bright stars known to host exoplanets, in particular Earth-to-Neptune-sized planets, anywhere in the sky. By knowing exactly where and when to look for transits, and being able to return to repeatedly observe the same targets, Cheops will become the most efficient instrument to study individual exoplanets. It will record the precise sizes of these relatively small planets and combined with mass measurements already calculated from other observatories, will enable the planet's density to be determined, and thus make a first-step characterisation of the nature of these worlds.

Cheops will also identify candidates for additional study by future missions. For example, it will provide well-characterised targets for the international James Webb Space Telescope, which will perform further detailed studies of their atmospheres.

https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2019/03/Exoplanet_mission_timeline_Cheops

Image credit: ESA

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #40 on: 03/30/2019 07:28 pm »
Exoplanet satellite ready

ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, was recently declared ready to fly after completing a series of final spacecraft tests.

Cheops will lift off as a secondary passenger on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket launching from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite will be stored at the Airbus Defence and Space facility in Madrid for a few months before being shipped to the launch site, targeting the launch time slot between 15 October and 14 November in 2019.

https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cheops/Exoplanet_satellite_ready

Image credit:  ESA – S. Corvaja

Online Salo

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11329
  • Odessa, Ukraine
  • Liked: 4227
  • Likes Given: 3524
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #41 on: 04/06/2019 07:46 am »
https://www.dlr.de/rd/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-4926/8178_read-47363/
Quote
Nr    Version       Flug        Startdatum           Nutzlast(en)    

23  Sojus STB    VS23     15.10.2019 (tbc)     CSG 1 · CHEOPS · ANGELS · EyeSat · OPS-SAT · 4 CubeSats

Angaben ohne Gewähr, Änderungen jederzeit möglich. Aktualisiert: 4. April 2019

Online zubenelgenubi

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 11159
  • Arc to Arcturus, then Spike to Spica
  • Sometimes it feels like Trantor in the time of Hari Seldon
  • Liked: 7392
  • Likes Given: 72410
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #42 on: 04/07/2019 12:29 am »
« Last Edit: 06/24/2019 07:51 pm by zubenelgenubi »
Support your local planetarium! (COVID-panic and forward: Now more than ever.) My current avatar is saying "i wants to go uppies!" Yes, there are God-given rights. Do you wish to gainsay the Declaration of Independence?

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #43 on: 07/19/2019 10:36 am »

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #44 on: 07/29/2019 05:42 pm »
https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cheops/Cheops_passes_final_review_before_shipment_to_launch_site

Quote
The Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, has successfully passed the final analysis review for its launch on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

All technical evaluations performed by Arianespace on the mission’s key aspects, including the launch trajectory and payload separation, have shown positive results.

Quote
Arianespace’s launch manifest for the coming months is currently under discussion, with the exact date for Cheops shipment to the Spaceport, and its launch date, to be confirmed at a later stage. The mission is foreseen to launch in the last quarter of 2019.

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #45 on: 11/03/2019 08:40 am »
Cheops team in Kourou

The Cheops satellite with representatives from ESA, Airbus and CNES at Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, during launch preparation activities.

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2019/10/Cheops_team_in_Kourou2

Image credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG/P Piron
« Last Edit: 11/03/2019 09:45 pm by bolun »

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #46 on: 11/06/2019 01:56 pm »
Jacques :-)

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #47 on: 11/06/2019 01:57 pm »
.
« Last Edit: 11/06/2019 01:57 pm by jacqmans »
Jacques :-)

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #48 on: 11/06/2019 01:58 pm »
Jacques :-)

Online Chris Bergin

Support NSF via L2 -- Help improve NSF -- Site Rules/Feedback/Updates
**Not a L2 member? Whitelist this forum in your adblocker to support the site and ensure full functionality.**

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #50 on: 12/18/2019 02:32 pm »
http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cheops/Liftoff_for_Cheops_ESA_s_exoplanet_mission

Quote
ESA’s Cheops mission lifted off on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 09:54:20 CET on 18 December on its exciting mission to characterise planets orbiting stars other than the Sun.

Signals from the spacecraft, received at the mission control centre based at INTA in Torrejón de Ardoz near Madrid, Spain, via the Troll ground tracking station at 12:43 CET confirmed that the launch was successful.

http://nccr-planets.ch/blog/2019/12/18/cheops-successfully-launched/

Quote
Early orbit phase (LEOP) and In-Orbit Commissioning (IOC) will be performed by the spacecraft contractor Airbus before responsibility for CHEOPS operations will be taken over by the CHEOPS Mission Consortium.

In early January, the CHEOPS crew will start the commissioning of the instrument, which will take 2 months. At the beginning they will take dark images for about 2 weeks to test the electronics. At the end of January the next crucial action will follow: the opening of the lid. Only when they see the first star they know whether the focus setting is correct. Ideally, the star would appear as a blurred object, because the instrument is slightly out of focus, since CHEOPS only wants to observe bright stars and exposure time would otherwise be too short. At the beginning of March the first scientific measurements are expected.

Planning of the observations will be carried out at the Science Operations Centre (SOC) located at the University of Geneva and communicated to the Mission Operations Centre (MOC), where spacecraft commanding sequences will be uplinked via ground station antennas at Torrejón (nominal) and Villafranca (backup) near Madrid. The spacecraft telemetry will be routed from the MOC to the SOC for calibration, processing and archiving.

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #51 on: 01/08/2020 01:41 pm »
CHEOPS POINTING DIRECTIONS DURING LAUNCH AND EARLY ORBIT PHASE

Following launch on 18 December 2019, the CHEOPS spacecraft was pointed in sequence to different directions in the sky as part of the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) activities. The test successfully demonstrated the in-orbit performance of the attitude control system and the thermal response of the spacecraft.

The CHEOPS telescope always points towards the night side of Earth, in order to limit the impact on the measurements of sunlight and reflected stray light from Earth. At any time, the telescope can be pointed up to 60 degrees from the anti-Sun direction to perform an observation of an exoplanet transit. In this graph, the blue line represents this maximum off-pointing, the yellow line indicates the Ecliptic plane – which describes the path of the Sun in the sky – and the green line the orbital plane of CHEOPS. The pink lines connect the three pointing directions that were tested during LEOP activities: the first one, towards epsilon Eridani, a nearby, bright star potentially hosting a planetary system; a second pointing direction along the Ecliptic plane; and a third pointing direction at the maximum off-pointing and within the orbital plane of CHEOPS.

https://sci.esa.int/s/8kZ2NdW

Image credit: D. Modrego (INTA)

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #52 on: 01/11/2020 07:13 pm »
https://twitter.com/ESA_CHEOPS/status/1215579061839441921

Quote
Update from #Cheops in-orbit commissioning: the #science instrument was activated on Wed 8 January & took its first 'dark image' yesterday. Everything is operating as planned 👍 The telescope cover is still closed & will be opened by end January.

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #53 on: 01/14/2020 03:48 pm »
ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, is shown here as a long streak against a backdrop of stars as it orbits the Earth after its successful launch on 18 December 2019.

The 6-minute long exposure was taken at 13:18 UTC on 11 January 2020 with the 1-m SAINT-EX robotic telescope, located at the National Astronomical Observatory of Mexico at San Pedro Martir, Mexico.

The coordinates of the centre of this 2048 x 2048 pixel image are: right ascension 11h 56m 58.00s and declination +27º 30’ 45.0’’ (J2000). The visible trail seen running from bottom to top in the image is due to sunlight reflected by the Cheops spacecraft, which is in a sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of 700 km and a local time of the ascending node of 6:00am.

The image spans only 12 arcminutes across, so Cheops spent a very short time in the field of view – around 400 ms. The estimated r’-band magnitude of CHEOPS in this image is 7.8 ± 0.3 (calculation by M. Sestovic, University of Bern).
Jacques :-)

Offline jebbo

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 940
  • Cambridge, UK
  • Liked: 608
  • Likes Given: 309
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #54 on: 01/14/2020 04:40 pm »
Here is the first full-frame image from CHEOPS

https://twitter.com/KevinHeng1/status/1215222284367122432

--- Tony

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #55 on: 01/27/2020 01:20 pm »
https://www.unibe.ch/news/media_news/media_relations_e/media_releases/2020/media_releases_2020/opening_of_the_cheops_cover_delayed_by_a_few_days/index_eng.html

Opening of the CHEOPS cover delayed by a few days

Quote
The cover of the CHEOPS space telescope was scheduled to be opened on Monday, January 27, 2020. The date is being pushed back by a few days because several tests are being repeated.

The CHEOPS space telescope has been orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 700 kilometers since its launch on December 18, 2019. The in-orbit commissioning of the various components since early January has been proceeding very well. A wide variety of tests have been performed in order to ensure that the instruments and the satellite platform are working properly. CHEOPS has also taken its first images with closed cover and transmitted them to Earth. Although these are completely dark, they are essential for a proper calibration of the instrument.

While everything is functioning as intended, the analysis of all the data has convinced the CHEOPS team that several instrumental parameters could be further optimized. This has led the team to repeat several tests, resulting in a delay in the original planning.

As a result, the opening of the space telescope cover, originally foreseen for Monday, January 27, 2020, is being delayed by a few days. This decision was taken because the opening is an irreversible action and all activities and tests which are still to be performed with closed cover need to be completed and properly interpreted.

The delay in the opening of the telescope cover will neither impact the overall schedule for CHEOPS nor the start of scientific operation.

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #56 on: 01/29/2020 11:53 am »
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cheops/Cheops_opens_its_eye_to_the_sky

Quote
Six weeks after the launch of Cheops, ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, the telescope cover was opened as part of the mission’s in-orbit commissioning.

https://www.unibe.ch/news/media_news/media_relations_e/media_releases/2020/media_releases_2020/cover_of_cheops_space_telescope_open/index_eng.html

Quote
The cover was opened as intended on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 7:38 am. CHEOPS is now being tested for precision and the first images are being produced.

Quote
First images to be published in one to two weeks

Offline jebbo

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 940
  • Cambridge, UK
  • Liked: 608
  • Likes Given: 309
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #57 on: 02/07/2020 08:20 am »
« Last Edit: 02/07/2020 08:26 am by jebbo »

Online gongora

  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10205
  • US
  • Liked: 13885
  • Likes Given: 5933
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #58 on: 03/26/2020 02:29 pm »
Airbus successfully completes In Orbit Commissioning of CHEOPS

Madrid, 26 March 2020 – Airbus has received confirmation from ESA of a successful end to the In Orbit Commissioning (IOC) of CHEOPS after the IOC review yesterday. This critical phase was performed by Airbus in Spain with the support of the Instrument Team (University of Bern), Mission Operation Centre (INTA), Science Operation Centre (University of Geneva) and ESA.

The IOC phase started on 7th January and over the past two and a half months Airbus has conducted the operations to verify the performance of the satellite (platform and instrument), the ground segment and the science package. During this time the main goal was to consolidate the documentation, processes and procedures for use during the operational phase.

ESA recognised the great job done by the Airbus teams and stated there were no issues preventing routine operations from starting and confirmed hand-over of the mission operations from Airbus to INTA and the mission consortium.

Fernando Varela, Head of Space Systems in Spain, said: “The in-orbit delivery of the CHEOPS satellite is the culmination of the Airbus participation in the programme. It is the first European exoplanetary mission and the first ESA mission built by Airbus in Spain. The professionalism of the technical  and engineering teams at Airbus was key to this success.”

CHEOPS will be controlled by INTA and the mission consortium (University of Geneva and University of Bern). Nevertheless, Airbus is also ready to assist during the operational phase for the whole mission life.

CHEOPS marks the first time that Airbus in Spain has been the prime contractor for the whole mission, from satellite development, through launch, to LEOP and IOC. The entire mission development was completed in record time without delays and met the very tight budget. To do this, Airbus managed a team of 24 companies from 11 European countries, seven of them Spanish, confirming Airbus as the driving force behind the space industry in Spain.

As a reminder, CHEOPS is the first in ESA’s FAST TRACK missions programme whose main characteristics are low cost and a challenging budget. CHEOPS will characterise exoplanets orbiting nearby stars, observing known planets in the size range between Earth and Neptune and precisely measuring their radii to determine their density and understand what they are made of.

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #59 on: 04/16/2020 12:51 pm »
Cheops obtains its first exoplanet light curve

During its in-orbit commissioning, ESA's Cheops mission observed the transit of KELT-11b in front of its host star.

HD 93396 is a subgiant yellow star located 320 light-years away, slightly cooler and three times larger than our Sun. It hosts a puffy gaseous planet, KELT-11b, about 30% larger in size than Jupiter, in an orbit that is much closer to the star than Mercury is to the Sun.

The light curve of this star shows a clear dip caused by the eight hour-long transit of KELT-11b, which enabled scientists to determine very precisely the diameter of the planet: 181,600 km – with an uncertainty just under 4300 km. The measurements made by Cheops are five times more accurate than those from Earth, providing a taster for the science to come from the Cheops mission.

In this graphic, the Sun is shown as a comparison, along with the diameter of Earth and Jupiter (calculated from the mean volumetric radius).

Related articles:

- Cheops observes its first exoplanets and is ready for science

- CHEOPS space telescope ready for scientific operation

http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/04/Cheops_obtains_its_first_exoplanet_light_curve

Image credit: ESA/Airbus/CHEOPS Mission Consortium

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #60 on: 07/26/2020 07:07 pm »
CHEOPS DISCRETIONARY PROGRAMME IS NOW OPEN

17 July 2020

Proposals are invited for the CHEOPS Discretionary Programme, an element of the Guest Observers Programme which enables scientists to propose observations of individual targets that have been discovered, or declared to be of high scientific merit, since the close of AO-1 back in mid-May 2019.

Full details, including the policy and procedures document which details the boundary conditions for the call, together with the tools needed to prepare and submit a proposal are available from a dedicated webpage which can be found at:
​​​​​
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/cheops-guest-observers-programme/discretionary-programme

https://sci.esa.int/s/AM3GorW

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #62 on: 09/28/2020 01:34 pm »
First results from Cheops: ESA’s exoplanet observer reveals extreme alien world
28/09/2020

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. The finding, the very first from the mission, demonstrates Cheops’ unique ability to shed light on the Universe around us by revealing the secrets of these alien worlds.

Launched in December 2019, Cheops (the Characterising Exoplanet Satellite) is designed to observe nearby stars known to host planets. By ultra-precisely measuring changes in the levels of light coming from these systems as the planets orbit their stars, Cheops can initially characterise these planets — and, in turn, increase our understanding of how they form and evolve.

The new finding concerns a so-called ‘ultra-hot Jupiter’ named WASP-189 b. Hot Jupiters, as the name suggests, are giant gas planets a bit like Jupiter in our own Solar System; however, they orbit far, far closer to their host star, and so are heated to extreme temperatures.

http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cheops/First_results_from_Cheops_ESA_s_exoplanet_observer_reveals_extreme_alien_world
Jacques :-)

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #63 on: 09/28/2020 01:35 pm »
DLR Press Release, 28 September 2020

Hot like a small star - CHEOPS space telescope makes ultra-precise temperature and size measurements of an unusual giant planet

Full article with images: https://www.dlr.de/content/en/articles/news/2020/03/20200928_hot-like-a-small-star.html

Initial measurements made by the European CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) space telescope indicate that the giant planet, WASP-189b, located 326 light years from Earth, glows as hot as a small star as it orbits its central star at high speed on an unusual orbit that takes it close to the star's poles. At 3200 degrees Celsius, it is one of the hottest bodies of the over 4000 known exoplanets. The European Space Agency (ESA) mission, launched last year, enables the high-precision characterisation of extrasolar planets. Scientists from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) involved in CHEOPS contributed to the analyses, which have now been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

"The planet WASP-189b was detected in 2018. Because of its unusual orbit close to its central star, we studied it with CHEOPS very early on," explains Szilard Csizmadia from the DLR Institute of Planetary Research. "The precise measurements made with CHEOPS have now revealed its extraordinary characteristics: it is an ultra-hot planet, almost 1.6 times the diameter of Jupiter, and its orbit around its star is strangely inclined."

The CHEOPS space telescope was placed in a sun-synchronous orbit 700 kilometres above Earth on 18 December 2019. Since then, CHEOPS has been observing stars in our cosmic neighbourhood that are already known to be orbited by planets. It takes a so-called 'second look' at these exoplanets. Thanks to its ultra-precise measurements, CHEOPS is able to characterise these planets in detail, and thus greatly enhance our understanding of the formation and evolution of planetary systems.

Planetary occultation reveals high temperature

CHEOPS measures the dips in the observed light intensity of a star when an orbiting planet passes in front of it with great accuracy. In addition to measuring a primary transit event of WASP-189b, when the planet passes across the line of sight between the observer and the star, CHEOPS was also able to measure the much smaller dip during the secondary signal when the planet disappears behind the star with respect to the observer. These extremely precise measurements of such an occultation allows the temperature of the planet to be derived. It was determined that WASP-189b has a surface temperature of approximately 3200 degrees Celsius, hotter than almost any other exoplanet known to date. At such temperatures, all rocks and metals melt and become gaseous. By way of comparison, the Sun has a surface temperature of almost 6000 degrees Celsius, but some small M dwarf stars have temperatures well below 3000 degrees Celsius.

Orbiting at approximately 7.5 million kilometres from its star, WASP-189b is 20 times closer to its star than Earth, which orbits the Sun at a distance of about 150 million kilometres. One orbit takes only 2.7 days to complete. The star around which it orbits is larger and over 2000 degrees hotter than the Sun, and therefore appears to glow blue. "Only a handful of planets are known to exist around stars this hot, and this system is by far the brightest," says Monika Lendl of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, lead author of the new study. "WASP-189b is also the brightest hot Jupiter that we can observe as it passes in front of or behind its star, making the whole system really intriguing."

Rapid star rotation leads to flattening

Transit measurements make it possible to determine the planet's radius and orbital parameters and to learn about the shape of the planet and its star. With an equatorial diameter of about 220,000 kilometres, WASP-189b is almost 1.6 times larger than Jupiter – larger than previously thought. The star itself also had a surprise in store for the researchers. Instead of a perfect sphere, the star rotates so fast that it deforms. As a result, the equatorial radius is greater than the polar radius. This causes the star to be cooler at the equator and hotter at the poles, making the poles appear brighter. In addition to this unusual asymmetry, the planet's orbit is not in the equatorial plane of the star, as would be expected if the star and planet developed from a common disk of gas and dust that passes on its rotational direction to its planets, as is the case in the Solar System. The orbit of WASP-189b, however, passes over the poles of its star.

Such an inclined orbit leads to the unsolved question of how the 'hot Jupiter' was formed. It is thought that such an inclined orbit is possible when a planet forms further out from its star and is then driven inwards. This could occur either when several planets within a system crowd into one orbit or when an external influence – such as another star –- disrupts the system and forces the gas giant towards its star and into a very strongly inclined orbit. The strong inclination of the planetary orbit suggests that WASP-189b experienced such a strong interaction in the past.

CHEOPS promises major advances in exoplanet research

CHEOPS' high-precision observations and optical capabilities made it possible to discover the unusual properties of WASP-189b's planetary system. CHEOPS opened its 'eye' in January this year and began routine scientific operations in April. Heike Rauer, Director of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof, is enthusiastic: "The accuracy achieved with CHEOPS is fantastic.” As a CHEOPS project scientist, she is optimistic about the future of the mission: "The initial measurements already show that the instrument works better than expected. It is allowing us to learn more about these distant planets." Thousands of exoplanets, the vast majority of which have no direct equivalent in the Solar System, have been discovered in the last quarter century, and many more will be identified with current and future ground-based surveys and space missions such as PLATO.

Over the next few years, CHEOPS will monitor hundreds of previously identified planets orbiting bright stars, building and expanding on existing knowledge, as was done for WASP-189b. The mission is the first in a series of three ESA science missions focusing on the detection and characterisation of exoplanets. But CHEOPS also has significant discovery potential of its own – from identifying worthwhile observation objects for future missions, to exploring exoplanetary atmospheres and searching for other planets in known planetary systems.

The ESA CHEOPS mission

CHEOPS is a mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) that was developed in close cooperation with Switzerland. The scientific consortium is led by the University of Bern, with significant contributions from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is involved in the scientific evaluation of the CHEOPS data. DLR's Berlin-based Institutes for Optical Sensor Systems and of Planetary Research contributed two electronic modules, the heart of the satellite telescope and the focal plane module containing the CCD detector, whose thermo-mechanical stability enables high-precision measurements. DLR also developed algorithms for the scientific evaluation of the measurement data.
Jacques :-)

Offline leovinus

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1095
  • Porto, Portugal
  • Liked: 866
  • Likes Given: 1727
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #64 on: 10/02/2020 09:16 pm »
"The CHEOPS mission",  24 Sept, 2020, 37 pages,
https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.11633

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #65 on: 01/26/2021 07:59 am »
ESA’s exoplanet watcher Cheops reveals unique planetary system
25/01/2021

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 star. The sizes and masses of the planets, however, don’t follow such an orderly pattern. This finding challenges current theories of planet formation.

The discovery of increasing numbers of planetary systems, none like our own Solar System, continues to improve our understanding of how planets form and evolve. A striking example is the planetary system called TOI-178, some 200 light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor.

Astronomers already expected this star to host two or more exoplanets after observing it with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). New, highly precise observations with Cheops, ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite that was launched in 2019, now show that TOI-178 harbours at least six planets and that this foreign solar system has a very unique layout. The team, led by Adrien Leleu of University of Geneva and the University of Bern in Switzerland, published their results today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

One of the special characteristics of the TOI-178 system that the scientists were able to uncover with Cheops is that the planets – except the one closest to the star – follow a rhythmic dance as they move in their orbits. This phenomenon is called orbital resonance, and it means that there are patterns that repeat themselves as the planets go around the star, with some planets aligning every few orbits.

A similar resonance is observed in the orbits of three of Jupiter’s moons: Io, Europa and Ganymede. For every orbit of Europa, Ganymede completes two orbits, and Io completes four (this is a 4:2:1 pattern).

In the TOI-178 system, the resonant motion is much more complex as it involves five planets, following a 18:9:6:4:3 pattern. While the second planet from the star (the first in the pattern) completes 18 orbits, the third planet from the star (second in the pattern) completes nine orbits, and so on.

Initially, the scientists only found four of the planets in resonance, but by following the pattern the scientists calculated that there must be another planet in the system (the fourth following the pattern, the fifth planet from the star).

“We predicted its trajectory very precisely by assuming that it was in resonance with the other planets,” Adrien explains. An additional observation with Cheops confirmed that the missing planet indeed existed in the predicted orbit.

After they had uncovered the rare orbital arrangements, the scientists were curious to see whether the planet densities (size and mass) also follow an orderly pattern. To investigate this, Adrien and his team combined data from Cheops with observations taken with ground-based telescopes at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Paranal Observatory in Chile.

But while the planets in the TOI-178 system orbit their star in a very orderly manner, their densities do not follow any particular pattern. One of the exoplanets, a dense, terrestrial planet like Earth is right next to a similar-sized but very fluffy planet ­­– like a mini-Jupiter, and next to that is one very similar to Neptune.

“This is not what we expected, and is the first time that we observe such a setup in a planetary system,” says Adrien. “In the few systems we know where the planets orbit in this resonant rhythm, the densities of the planets gradually decrease as we move away from the star, and it is also what we expect from theory.”

Catastrophic events such as giant impacts could normally explain large variations in planet densities, but the TOI-178 system would not be so neatly in harmony if that had been the case.

“The orbits in this system are very well ordered, which tells us that this system has evolved quite gently since its birth,” explains co-author Yann Alibert from the University of Bern.

Revealing the complex architecture of the TOI-178 system, which challenges current theories of planet formation, was made possible thanks to almost 12 days of observations with Cheops (11 days of continuous observations, plus two shorter observations).

“Solving this exciting puzzle required quite some effort to plan, in particular to schedule the 11-day continuous observation needed in order to catch the signatures of the different planets,” says ESA Cheops project scientist Kate Isaak. “This study highlights very nicely the follow-up potential of Cheops – not only to better characterise known planets, but to hunt down and confirm new ones.”

Adrien and his team want to continue to use Cheops to study the TOI system in even more detail.

“We might find more planets that could be in the habitable zone – where liquid water might be present on the surface of a planet – which begins outside of the orbits of the planets that we discovered to date,” says Adrien. “We also want to find out what happened to the innermost planet that is not in resonance with the others. We suspect that it broke out of resonance due to tidal forces.”

Astronomers will use Cheops to observe hundreds of known exoplanets orbiting bright stars.

“Cheops will not only deepen our understanding of the formation of exoplanets, but also that of our own planet and the Solar System,” adds Kate.

Notes for editors

‘Six transiting planets and a chain of Laplace resonances in TOI-178’ by A. Leleu et al. appears in Astronomy & Astrophysics. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202039767

More about Cheops

Cheops is an ESA mission developed in partnership with Switzerland, with a dedicated consortium led by the University of Bern, and with important contributions from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

ESA is the Cheops mission architect, responsible for procurement and testing of the satellite, the launch and early operations phase, and in-orbit commissioning, as well as the Guest Observers’ Programme through which scientists world-wide can apply to observe with Cheops. The consortium of 11 ESA Member States led by Switzerland provided essential elements of the mission. The prime contractor for the design and construction of the spacecraft is Airbus Defence and Space in Madrid, Spain.

The Cheops mission consortium runs the Mission Operations Centre located at INTA, in Torrejón de Ardoz near Madrid, Spain, and the Science Operations Centre, located at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

For more information, visit: https://www.esa.int/Cheops

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cheops/ESA_s_exoplanet_watcher_Cheops_reveals_unique_planetary_system
Jacques :-)

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #66 on: 02/20/2021 05:52 pm »
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 star. The sizes and masses of the planets, however, don’t follow such an orderly pattern. This finding challenges current theories of planet formation.

The discovery of increasing numbers of planetary systems, none like our own Solar System, continues to improve our understanding of how planets form and evolve. A striking example is the planetary system called TOI-178, some 200 light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor.

Astronomers already expected this star to host two or more exoplanets after observing it with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). New, highly precise observations with Cheops, ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite that was launched in 2019, now show that TOI-178 harbours at least six planets and that this foreign solar system has a very unique layout. The team, led by Adrien Leleu of University of Geneva and the University of Bern in Switzerland, published their results today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Article: https://www.aanda.org/component/article?access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202039767

Offline Star One

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 13997
  • UK
  • Liked: 3974
  • Likes Given: 220
ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #67 on: 02/20/2021 08:17 pm »
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 star. The sizes and masses of the planets, however, don’t follow such an orderly pattern. This finding challenges current theories of planet formation.

The discovery of increasing numbers of planetary systems, none like our own Solar System, continues to improve our understanding of how planets form and evolve. A striking example is the planetary system called TOI-178, some 200 light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor.

Astronomers already expected this star to host two or more exoplanets after observing it with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). New, highly precise observations with Cheops, ESA’s Characterising Exoplanet Satellite that was launched in 2019, now show that TOI-178 harbours at least six planets and that this foreign solar system has a very unique layout. The team, led by Adrien Leleu of University of Geneva and the University of Bern in Switzerland, published their results today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Article: https://www.aanda.org/component/article?access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202039767
Also posted to this thread some time ago.

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=42108.msg2190043#msg2190043
« Last Edit: 02/21/2021 09:38 am by Star One »

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #68 on: 03/06/2021 05:41 pm »
APPROVED AO-2 PROGRAMMES

25 February 2021:  The second Announcement of Opportunity (AO2) for the CHEOPS Guest Observers Programme came out on 4 November 2020, and closed approximately 4 weeks later on 1 December 2020. The CHEOPS Time Allocation Committee (TAC) met on the 2-3 February 2021.

Based on the recommendations made by the TAC, the Director of Science has awarded observing time on CHEOPS to the proposals listed in the table below. 9 programmes have been awarded observing time on CHEOPS, covering a total of 638.1 orbits. The number of orbits that have been awarded is below what had been foreseen to be allocated for this first call - details of how it will be possible to apply for the remaining orbits will be announced in coming months.

Targets that are part of these programmes have been added to the Reserved Target List and cannot be included in observing programmes of other scientists until the AO-2 observations have been completed.

https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/cheops-guest-observers-programme/ao-2-programmes

Online jacqmans

  • Moderator
  • Global Moderator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21709
  • Houten, The Netherlands
  • Liked: 8562
  • Likes Given: 320
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #69 on: 06/28/2021 03:47 pm »
Unique exoplanet photobombs Cheops study of nearby star system

28/06/2021

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 of the star. This transit reveals exciting details about a rare planet “with no known equivalent”, say the researchers.

The discovery is one of the first results from ESA’s Cheops (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite), and the first time an exoplanet with a period of over 100 days has been spotted transiting a star that is bright enough to be visible to the naked eye.

Named Nu2 Lupi, this bright, Sun-like star is located just under 50 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Lupus (the Wolf). In 2019, the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the ESO 3.6-metre telescope in Chile discovered three exoplanets (named ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’, with the star deemed to be object ‘A’) in the system, with masses between those of Earth and Neptune and orbits lasting 11.6, 27.6 and 107.6 days. The innermost two of these planets – b and c – were subsequently found to transit Nu2 Lupi by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), making it one of only three naked-eye stars known to host multiple transiting planets.

“Transiting systems such as Nu2 Lupi are of paramount importance in our understanding of how planets form and evolve, as we can compare several planets around the same bright star in detail,” says Laetitia Delrez of the University of Liège, Belgium, and lead author of the new finding.

“We set out to build on previous studies of Nu2 Lupi and observe planets b and c crossing the face of Nu2 Lupi with Cheops, but during a transit of planet c we spotted something amazing: an unexpected transit by planet ‘d’, which lies further out in the system.”

Planetary transits create a valuable opportunity to study a planet’s atmosphere, orbit, size and interior. A transiting planet blocks a tiny but detectable proportion of its star’s light as it crosses in front of its star – and it was this drop in light that led Laetitia and colleagues to their discovery. As long-period exoplanets orbit so far from their stars, the chances of seeing one during a transit are incredibly low, making Cheops’ finding a real surprise.

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cheops/Unique_exoplanet_photobombs_Cheops_study_of_nearby_star_system
Jacques :-)

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #70 on: 06/30/2021 02:43 pm »
Unique exoplanet photobombs Cheops study of nearby star system

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cheops/Unique_exoplanet_photobombs_Cheops_study_of_nearby_star_system

Related pic: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2021/06/Infographic_of_the_Nu2_Lupi_planetary_system

Infographic of the Nu2 Lupi planetary system

This infographic reveals the details of the Nu2 Lupi planetary system, which was recently explored by ESA’s exoplanet watcher Cheops (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite).

This bright, Sun-like star is located just under 50 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Lupus (the Wolf), as shown to the left of the frame, and is known to host three planets (named ‘b’, ‘c’ and ‘d’, with the star deemed to be object ‘A’). The relative sizes, orbital periods, and possible compositions of these three planets are depicted to the centre and lower right of the frame, while planet d’s comparative position within our Solar System is shown to the upper right (as defined by the amount of incident light it receives from its star, Nu2 Lupi).

Cheops explored this planetary system to better characterise its two inner planets, b and c, as these were known to pass in front of their host star (a ‘transit’). However, while doing so, Cheops unexpectedly spotted planet d also transiting Nu2 Lupi – the first time an exoplanet with a period of over 100 days has been spotted transiting a star bright enough to be visible to the naked eye.

Transits create the valuable opportunity to study a planet’s atmosphere, orbit, size and interior, and allow scientists to compare multiple planets around the same star to understand how they have formed and evolved. The transiting behaviour of all three planets of the Nu2 Lupi system enabled Cheops to refine the planetary characteristics and compositions depicted here.

Image credit: ESA; data: L. Delrez et al (2021)

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #71 on: 01/11/2022 10:55 am »
Cheops reveals a rugby ball-shaped exoplanet

ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed that an exoplanet orbiting its host star within a day has a deformed shape more like that of a rugby ball than a sphere. This is the first time that the deformation of an exoplanet has been detected, offering new insights into the internal structure of these star-hugging planets.

The planet, known as WASP-103b is located in the constellation of Hercules. It has been deformed by the strong tidal forces between the planet and its host star WASP-103, which is about 200 degrees hotter and 1.7 times larger than the Sun.

WASP-103b is a planet almost twice the size of Jupiter with 1.5 times its mass, orbiting its host star in less than a day.

Cheops measures exoplanet transits – the dip in light caused when a planet passes in front of its star from our point of view. Ordinarily, studying the shape of the light curve will reveal details about the planet such as its size. The high precision of Cheops together with its pointing flexibility, which enables the satellite to return to a target and to observe multiple transits, has allowed astronomers to detect the minute signal of the tidal deformation of WASP-103b. This distinct signature can be used to unveil even more about the planet.

The team was able to use the transit light curve of WASP-103b to derive a parameter – the Love number – that measures how mass is distributed within a planet. Understanding how mass is distributed can reveal details on the internal structure of the planet.

The Love number for WASP-103b is similar to Jupiter, which tentatively suggests that the internal structure is similar, despite WASP-103b having twice the radius.

Related article: Cheops reveals a rugby ball-shaped exoplanet

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/01/Cheops_reveals_a_rugby_ball-shaped_exoplanet

Image credit: ESA
« Last Edit: 01/11/2022 11:47 am by bolun »

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #72 on: 09/18/2022 03:36 pm »
A thousand days of CHEOPS

Quote
After a thousand days in orbit, the CHEOPS space telescope shows almost no signs of wear. Under these conditions, it could continue to reveal details of some of the most fascinating exoplanets for quite some time. CHEOPS is a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Switzerland, under the aegis of the University of Bern in collaboration with the University of Geneva.

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #73 on: 02/08/2023 07:21 pm »
ESA’s Cheops finds an unexpected ring around dwarf planet Quaoar

Quote
During a break from looking at planets around other stars, ESA’s CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) mission has observed a dwarf planet in our own Solar System and made a decisive contribution to the discovery of a dense ring of material around it.

The dwarf planet is known as Quaoar. The presence of a ring at a distance of almost seven and a half times the radius of Quaoar, opens up a mystery for astronomers to solve: why has this material not coalesced into a small moon?

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #74 on: 06/08/2023 02:28 pm »
Cheops explores mysterious warm mini-Neptunes

Quote
ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops confirmed the existence of four warm exoplanets orbiting four stars in our Milky Way. These exoplanets have sizes between Earth and Neptune and orbit their stars closer than Mercury our Sun.

These so-called mini-Neptunes are unlike any planet in our Solar System and provide a ‘missing link’ between Earth-like and Neptune-like planets that is not yet understood. Mini-Neptunes are among the most common types of exoplanets known, and astronomers are starting to find more and more orbiting bright stars.

Image credit: ESA

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #75 on: 07/11/2023 08:27 pm »
Cheops shows scorching exoplanet acts like a mirror

Data from ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has led to the surprising revelation that an ultra-hot exoplanet that orbits its host star in less than a day is covered by reflective clouds of metal, making it the shiniest exoplanet ever found.

Related article: Cheops shows scorching exoplanet acts like a mirror

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/07/Cheops_shows_scorching_exoplanet_acts_like_a_mirror

Image credit: ESA

Offline bolun

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3557
  • Europe
  • Liked: 970
  • Likes Given: 110
Re: ESA - CHEOPS updates
« Reply #76 on: 11/29/2023 08:13 pm »
Cheops unlocks family of six exoplanets in harmonic rhythm

A rare family of six exoplanets has been unlocked with the help of ESA’s Cheops mission. The planets in this family are all smaller than Neptune and revolve around their star HD110067 in a very precise waltz. When the closest planet to the star makes three full revolutions around it, the second one makes exactly two during the same time. This is called a 3:2 resonance. The six planets form a resonant chain in pairs of 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 4:3, resulting in the closest planet completing six orbits while the outer-most planet does one. Cheops confirmed the orbital period of the third planet in the system, which was the key to unlocking the rhythm of the entire system. This is the second planetary system in orbital resonance that Cheops has helped reveal. The first one is called TOI-178.

Related article: ESA’s Cheops helps unlock rare six-planet system

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/11/Cheops_unlocks_family_of_six_exoplanets_in_harmonic_rhythm

Image credit: ESA

Tags: CHEOPS 
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
0