The European Space Agency’sCheops missionis a brand new planet - hunting orbital observatory launched in tardy December 2019 . After three months in orbital cavity , where it was tested over and over again , the orbiter is now ready to set out its scientific delegation in earnest , and has even spotted its first exoplanets .
“ The in - orbit commission phase was an exciting period , and we are proud of we were able to meet all requirements , ” Nicola Rando , Cheops labor manager at ESA , say in astatement . “ The satellite platform and instrument performed unco , and both the Mission and Science Operation Centres supported procedure impeccably . ”
The squad tested how well the satellite was responding to really being in space by having Cheops looking at well - known stable stars . Thanks to those , the mission ’s scientists and engineers were able to see if there were any issue with the instruments . Luckily , none was found . Cheops work dead and can discover stars for time of day while moving in its compass , which is crucial for its scientific mission .
Cheops is the Hellenic name of the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu , but for the spacecraft , it stands forCHaracterisingExOPlanetsSatellite ( the backronym was truly reaching here ) and in the last two weeks of tests , it showed that it is very beneficial at it . Cheops observed two exoplanet - hosting maven , catch them as the planets were transiting ( passing ) in front of their mavin , blocking a fraction of the starlight and induce the separate - tale blip .
The mission is designed to measure out satellite sizes with not bad accuracy . For one of the objective keep an eye on , low - density planet KELT-11b , Cheops estimate its diam as 181,600 kilometer ( 112,840 miles ) with an dubiousness of just 4,300 kilometers ( 2,671 miles ) . That ’s five time more precise than what terra firma - base observation tower can measure . pass such gamy preciseness for a major planet 320 light-colored - geezerhood off from Earth is an amazing achievement .
“ That gives us a foretaste for what we can achieve with Cheops over the month and year to come , ” said Willy Benz , Principal Investigator of the Cheops commission consortium , and professor of astrophysics at the University of Bern .
The basal mission continuance is plan for 3.5 age and it will pore on measuring the properties of know transiting planets revolve smart and nearby star , provide new information and crucial perceptivity for further investigating in the time to come from larger telescopes .
