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Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars: the ESA M3 mission in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025

Sections
  • Project Management
    • PLATO Funding Agencies
    • PLATO ESA Study Team
    • PSWT
    • PLATO Consortium
      • PI and co-PIs
        • PI & co-PIs Office
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      • Involved Institutes
  • Payload
    • Payload Module
      • Cameras
      • DPS
    • Payload Teams
  • PSM
  • PDC
  • Contacts
  • Videos

    ESA’s exoplanet missions

  • Videos

    PLATO PLM Lifting @RUAG

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Mission Conference 2021, 11-15 October 2021

  • News, Pictures

    Planet-hunting eye of Plato

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Payload Progress Meeting, 05-06 Feb 2020, ESTEC

  • ArtWork

    ESA’s new renders and animations of PLATO

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Week #9, 9-11 Oct 2019, Marseille

  • News

    PLATO LEGO model

  • News

    Delivery of first detectors for PLATO’s exoplanet mission

  • ArtWork

    ESA’s fleet of cosmic observers

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Week #8, Graz, 15-17 April 2019

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Week #7, Cambridge, 5-7 December 2018

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO ESP2018: Stellar variability and its effect on the characterisation of small planets, 24-26 Oct 2018, Marseille

  • ArtWork

    PLATO artwork

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Week #6, Madrid, 13-15 March 2018

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    Camera AIV Meeting, Munich 13-14 Feb 2018

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    Plato Week #5, Porto, 24-26 Oct 2017

  • Meeting on Exoplanets, Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Mission Conference 2017, Warwick, 5-7 Sep 2017

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Week #4, Jun 20-22 2017, Albanova Univ., Stockholm

  • Meetings, PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Week #3, 13-15 Mar 2017, Göttingen

  • PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Week #2, 8-10 Nov 2016, ASI, Rome

  • PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Week #1, July 2016 at KU Leuven

  • ArtWork

    PLATO artwork

  • ArtWork

    PLATO artwork

  • ArtWork

    PLATO artwork

  • Pictures, Rendering

    PLATO satellite – TAS model

  • PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Payload Meeting, Berlin 15-17 July 2015

  • PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Science Meeting in Taormina, Italy – 3-5 Dec 2014

  • PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Phase B1 KOM, Berlin, 16-17 July 2014

  • PLATO Meetings

    PLATO TOU Team Meeting, Catania 28 Feb – 1 Mar 2011

  • PLATO Meetings

    PLATO Science Conference, Berlin, 24-25 Feb 2011

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PLATO is the M3 mission in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Program of the European Space Agency. With 26 telescopes of 20 cm class, that all togheter collect photons like a telescope of 1 m class covering a field of view 10,000 times the area of the full Moon, it will survey the brightest stars in the sky for transiting planets. PLATO sensitivity and operation mode will allow the detection of earth analogues - for mass and orbit - orbiting solar-like stars, a task that will not be covered by any other project in this decade.
PLATO launch is planned in 2026.
This site is maintained by the PLATO Mission Consortium, a community of scientists and engineers, that in collaboration with ESA, are involved in designing and producing the PLATO Payload, and in setting up the Science Program and the mission Ground Segment.
Science Objectives
Planet detection and characterisation of bulk parameters

Planet detection and characterisation of bulk parameters

Since the discovery of the first extrasolar planet orbiting a solar type star in 1995 (Mayor & Queloz 1995),  just…

  • PLATO study planets where they form
  • Habitability of planets around solar-like stars
  • Testing Planet Formation
  • Multiple Planet Systems
  • Terrestrial Planets
Science Requirements
  • Top scientific requirements

    Top scientific requirements

  • Derived Scientific Requirements
  • Wavelength and colour information
  • Observation gaps
Mission in depth
  • Mission Profile

    Mission Profile

  • Launch scenario and transfer
  • Operations at the Lagrange point 2 (L2)
  • Telemetry data budget
The PLATO Way
  • PLATO Measurement Concept

    PLATO Measurement Concept

  • The transit method
  • The radial velocity method
  • Asteroseismology
Payload
  • PLATO focal plane assembly (FPA) preliminary design review hold in Madrid, June 2019

    PLATO focal plane assembly (FPA) preliminary design review hold in Madrid, June 2019

  • Payload Module
  • Cameras
  • Telescope Optical Unit (TOU)
Ground Segment
  • Science Operations

    Science Operations

  • Data Products
  • Ground-based Observation Programme
  • Organisation of Ground-based Observation
Payload Management
  • Payload Management & Engineering Office 

    Payload Management & Engineering Office 

  • Camera AIV Teams
  • TOU Team
  • ICU Team
FactSheets
  • PLATO and the search for planets in the habitable zone

    PLATO and the search for planets in the habitable zone

  • TESS and PLATO at a glance
Meetings
  • PLATO Week #14, 27-31 March 2023

    PLATO Week #14, 27-31 March 2023

  • PLATO Stellar Science Conference, 26-30 June 2023, Milazzo (Italy)
  • PLATO Ground-based Observation Program (GOP) Workshop, 17-19 October 2022, Geneva
  • PLATO Week #13, 16-20 May 2022
Publications
  • PLATO papers

    PLATO papers

  • ESA Books
Newsletter
  • Newsletter #30

    Newsletter #30

  • Newsletter #29
  • Newsletter #28
  • Newsletter #27
Pictures from Meetings
  • Milazzo (Italy), 22-25 May 2018

    Milazzo (Italy), 22-25 May 2018

  • Madrid, 12-14 Mar 2018
  • Munich, 13-14 Feb 2018
  • Padova, 7 Nov 2017
Payload Models
  • Telescope Optical Unit Prototype

    Telescope Optical Unit Prototype

  • Telescope Optical Unit BreadBoard
Videos
ESA’s exoplanet missions

ESA’s exoplanet missions

More than 5000 exoplanets have been discovered to date, but what do they look like? ESA’s dedicated exoplanet missions Cheops,…

  • PLATO PLM Lifting @RUAG
  • PLATO’s eye
  • Optical Segmentation for a huge Field of View
  • PLATO vs. Kepler FoV
  • PLATO’s eye
Upcoming Events
  • PLATO Week #14 27/03/2023 – 30/03/2023 PraganRepubblica Ceca
News
Postdoc position in the PLATO mission at University of Tübingen – IAAT (Germany)

Postdoc position in the PLATO mission at University of Tübingen – IAAT (Germany)

The Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics of the University of Tübingen (IAAT)/ Germany offers a post-doc position in Stellar Astrophysics…

  • Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Exoplanet Discovery with the PLATO Mission at University of Oxford
  • Research fellow position in the PLATO mission at Warwick University
  • Community Scientist position in the PLATO mission
  • Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Teaching related to Origins of Life – University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
  • Research position within the project PLATO at INAF – Astrophysical Observatory of Bologna (Italy)
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