Abstract

Contributed Talk - Splinter ExoPlanets

Tuesday, 16 September 2025, 14:05

Finding other Earths with the PLATO mission

H. Rauer, R. Titz-Weider, A. Smith, J. Cabrera, and the PLATO Team
DLR

PLATO, the 3rd Medium class ESA’s mission, is designed to detect and characterize extrasolar planets by photometrically monitoring a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets around bright stars, including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. PLATO will also study the (host) stars using asteroseismology, allowing us to determine the stellar properties with high accuracy (radius, mass, age), substantially enhancing our knowledge of stellar structure and evolution. With the complement of radial velocity observations from ground, planets will be characterized for their radius and mass (hence density), and age with high accuracy. PLATO will provide us with a catalogue of well-characterized exoplanets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation theories and to better understand planet evolution. In addition, PLATO´s Guest Observer program will allow for a large number of complementary science cases, based on proposals from the community. PLATO is scheduled for a launch date end 2026. The payload instrument consists of 26 cameras with 12cm aperture each. For at least four years, the mission will perform high-precision photometric measurements of about 150.000 stars per field, with 2 long pointings foreseen. At this time, the development of the payload flight hardware is basically completed and the first target field selected. Performance tests are running as well as the preparation of the data pipelines and operations. This talk will present an overview of the PLATO mission and its development current status.