CHEOPS at ESA's technical centre
Date: 12 September 2018
Satellite: CHEOPS
Location: European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, the Netherlands
Copyright: ESA–A. Conigli
The CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite, CHEOPS, in the Rosetta room at ESA's technical centre in the Netherlands in September 2018.
CHEOPS will make observations of exoplanet-hosting stars to measure small changes in their brightness due to the transit of a planet across the star's disc, targeting in particular stars hosting planets in the Earth-to-Neptune size range. The information will enable precise measurements of the sizes of the orbiting planets to be made: combined with measurements of the planet masses, this will provide an estimate of their mean density – a first step to characterising planets outside our Solar System.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
