jobberone
Kane Ala
- Messages
- 54,219
- Reaction score
- 19,659
New planet-hunting space telescope coming in 2024
By Mike Wall
Published February 20, 2014
Space.com
The European Space Agency has selected a space telescope called PLATO
— short for Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars — as its newest medium-class science mission. The observatory, which is slated to blast off in 2024, will scan up to a million stars for signs of orbiting planets, with an emphasis on worlds that could be similar to our own.
"PLATO will begin a completely new chapter in the exploration of extrasolar planets," mission leader Heike Rauer, of the German Aerospace Center, said in a statement. "We will find planets that orbit their star in the life-sustaining habitable zone — planets where liquid water is expected, and where life as we know it can be maintained." [The Search For Another Earth (Video)
]
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014...anet-hunting-space-telescope-for-2024-launch/
By Mike Wall
Published February 20, 2014
Space.com
-
The PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) mission will identify and study thousands of exoplanetary systems, with an emphasis on discovering and characterising Earth-sized planets and super-Earths. (ESA/C. CARREAU)
The European Space Agency has selected a space telescope called PLATO
"PLATO will begin a completely new chapter in the exploration of extrasolar planets," mission leader Heike Rauer, of the German Aerospace Center, said in a statement. "We will find planets that orbit their star in the life-sustaining habitable zone — planets where liquid water is expected, and where life as we know it can be maintained." [The Search For Another Earth (Video)
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014...anet-hunting-space-telescope-for-2024-launch/