PLATO (spacecraft)
PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is a space telescope under development by the European Space Agency for launch in 2026. The mission goals are to search for planetary transits across up to one million stars, and to discover and characterize rocky extrasolar planets around yellow dwarf stars (like the Sun), subgiant stars, and red dwarf stars. The emphasis of the mission is on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around Sun-like stars where water can exist in a liquid state. It is the third medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and is named after the influential Greek philosopher Plato. A secondary objective of the mission is to study stellar oscillations or seismic activity in stars to measure stellar masses and evolution and enable the precise characterization of the planet host star, including its age.
| Mission type | Space observatory |
|---|---|
| Operator | ESA |
| Website | sci |
| Mission duration | 4 years (plus 4 years of possible mission extensions) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | OHB System AG |
| Launch mass | 2,134 kg (4,705 lb) including 103 kg of propellant |
| Payload mass | 533 kg (1,175 lb) |
| Power | 1,950 W |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 2026 (planned) |
| Rocket | Ariane 62 |
| Launch site | Kourou ELA-4 |
| Contractor | Arianespace |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Sun–Earth L2 |
| Main | |
| Type | Multiple refractors |
| Diameter | 26 telescopes, 120 mm each |
| Collecting area | 2,250 deg2 |
| Wavelengths | Visible spectrum: 500 to 1,000 nm |