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The PLATO mission

Rauer, Heike ; Dansac, Leo Michel ; Bitsch, Bertram LU ; Church, Ross LU orcid ; Davies, Melvyn LU ; Feltzing, Sofia LU orcid ; Ford, Dominic LU ; Herbst, Konstantin LU ; Hobbs, David LU orcid and Johansen, Anders LU , et al. (2025) In Experimental Astronomy 59(3).
Abstract

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA’s M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets (down to <2REarth) around bright stars (<11 mag), including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. With the complement of radial velocity observations from the ground, planets will be characterised for their radius, mass, and age with high accuracy (5%, 10%, 10% for an Earth-Sun combination respectively). PLATO will provide us with a large-scale catalogue of well-characterised small planets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation... (More)

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA’s M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets (down to <2REarth) around bright stars (<11 mag), including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. With the complement of radial velocity observations from the ground, planets will be characterised for their radius, mass, and age with high accuracy (5%, 10%, 10% for an Earth-Sun combination respectively). PLATO will provide us with a large-scale catalogue of well-characterised small planets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation theories and to better understand planet evolution. It will make possible comparative exoplanetology to place our Solar System planets in a broader context. In parallel, PLATO will study (host) stars using asteroseismology, allowing us to determine the stellar properties with high accuracy, substantially enhancing our knowledge of stellar structure and evolution. The payload instrument consists of 26 cameras with 12cm aperture each. For at least four years, the mission will perform high-precision photometric measurements. Here we review the science objectives, present PLATO‘s target samples and fields, provide an overview of expected core science performance as well as a description of the instrument and the mission profile towards the end of the serial production of the flight cameras. PLATO is scheduled for a launch date end 2026. This overview therefore provides a summary of the mission to the community in preparation of the upcoming operational phases.

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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Asteroseismology, Exoplanets, PLATO mission
in
Experimental Astronomy
volume
59
issue
3
article number
26
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:105003197453
ISSN
0922-6435
DOI
10.1007/s10686-025-09985-9
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025.
id
d368b7d7-9860-42e3-8e59-bfbdb0143f7d
date added to LUP
2025-05-12 11:50:28
date last changed
2025-05-15 08:48:18
@article{d368b7d7-9860-42e3-8e59-bfbdb0143f7d,
  abstract     = {{<p>PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is ESA’s M3 mission designed to detect and characterise extrasolar planets and perform asteroseismic monitoring of a large number of stars. PLATO will detect small planets (down to &lt;2REarth) around bright stars (&lt;11 mag), including terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars. With the complement of radial velocity observations from the ground, planets will be characterised for their radius, mass, and age with high accuracy (5%, 10%, 10% for an Earth-Sun combination respectively). PLATO will provide us with a large-scale catalogue of well-characterised small planets up to intermediate orbital periods, relevant for a meaningful comparison to planet formation theories and to better understand planet evolution. It will make possible comparative exoplanetology to place our Solar System planets in a broader context. In parallel, PLATO will study (host) stars using asteroseismology, allowing us to determine the stellar properties with high accuracy, substantially enhancing our knowledge of stellar structure and evolution. The payload instrument consists of 26 cameras with 12cm aperture each. For at least four years, the mission will perform high-precision photometric measurements. Here we review the science objectives, present PLATO‘s target samples and fields, provide an overview of expected core science performance as well as a description of the instrument and the mission profile towards the end of the serial production of the flight cameras. PLATO is scheduled for a launch date end 2026. This overview therefore provides a summary of the mission to the community in preparation of the upcoming operational phases.</p>}},
  author       = {{Rauer, Heike and Dansac, Leo Michel and Bitsch, Bertram and Church, Ross and Davies, Melvyn and Feltzing, Sofia and Ford, Dominic and Herbst, Konstantin and Hobbs, David and Johansen, Anders and Korth, Judith and Lambrechts, Michiel and Ludwig, Hans Guenter and McMillan, Paul and Mustill, Alexander James and Petit, Antoine C. and Traven, Gregor}},
  issn         = {{0922-6435}},
  keywords     = {{Asteroseismology; Exoplanets; PLATO mission}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Experimental Astronomy}},
  title        = {{The PLATO mission}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10686-025-09985-9}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s10686-025-09985-9}},
  volume       = {{59}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}