Cheops is ESA's CHaracterising ExoPlanet Satellite mission that will monitor Earth-to-Neptune-sized planets orbiting stars in other star systems. Light from the host stars will enter the telescope and be reflected by the primary mirror towards the secondary, which in turn will direct the starlight through a hole in the centre of the primary mirror, onto the CCD detector. Read more
Do you want to send your art into space on the new Cheops satellite? 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. Cheops - for CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite - is a space telescope that will observe nearby stars known to host planets, and is being built as a collaboration between ESAs Science Programme and Switzerland. The planned launch date is at the end of 2017. Read more
Title: CHEOPS: A Transit Photometry Mission for ESA's Small Mission Programme Authors: C. Broeg, A. Fortier, D. Ehrenreich, Y. Alibert, W. Baumjohann, W. Benz, M. Deleuil, M. Gillon, A. Ivanov, R. Liseau, M. Meyer, G. Oloffson, I. Pagano, G. Piotto, D. Pollacco, D. Queloz, R. Ragazzoni, E. Renotte, M. Steller, N. Thomas, the CHEOPS team
Ground based radial velocity (RV) searches continue to discover exoplanets below Neptune mass down to Earth mass. Furthermore, ground based transit searches now reach milli-mag photometric precision and can discover Neptune size planets around bright stars. These searches will find exoplanets around bright stars anywhere on the sky, their discoveries representing prime science targets for further study due to the proximity and brightness of their host stars. A mission for transit follow-up measurements of these prime targets is currently lacking. The first ESA S-class mission CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExoPlanet Satellite) will fill this gap. It will perform ultra-high precision photometric monitoring of selected bright target stars almost anywhere on the sky with sufficient precision to detect Earth sized transits. It will be able to detect transits of RV-planets by photometric monitoring if the geometric configuration results in a transit. For Hot Neptunes discovered from the ground, CHEOPS will be able to improve the transit light curve so that the radius can be determined precisely. Because of the host stars' brightness, high precision RV measurements will be possible for all targets. All planets observed in transit by CHEOPS will be validated and their masses will be known. This will provide valuable data for constraining the mass-radius relation of exoplanets, especially in the Neptune-mass regime. During the planned 3.5 year mission, about 500 targets will be observed. There will be 20% of open time available for the community to develop new science programmes.
Europe to begin search for habitable planets in our cosmic backyard
Cheops stands for CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite and although its science goals are written in typically conservative scientific language, this mission aims high. At the end of its 3.5 years of operation, it will have built a list of planets around other stars (exoplanets) that astronomers could subsequently analyse for extraterrestrial life. Read more
ESA Science Programme's new small satellite will study super-Earths
Studying planets around other stars will be the focus of the new small Science Programme mission, Cheops, ESA announced today. Its launch is expected in 2017. Cheops - for CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite - will target nearby, bright stars already known to have planets orbiting around them. Through high-precision monitoring of the star's brightness, scientists will search for the telltale signs of a 'transit' as a planet passes briefly across its face. Read more
The CHaracterising ExoPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS) is a proposed ESA Small Mission. CHEOPS will be the first mission dedicated to search for transits by means of ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. By being able to point at nearly any location on the sky, it will provide the unique capability of determining accurate radii for a subset of those planets for which the mass has already been estimated from ground-based spectroscopic surveys. It will also provide precision radii for new planets discovered by the next generation ground-based transits surveys (Neptune-size and smaller). Read more