The team of the Universitat de València is led by Andrés Moya Bedón, researcher in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and also includes Juan Fabregat Llueca, member of the UV Astronomical Observatory, and Míriam Rodríguez Sánchez. This team has been actively involved in this mission since its inception.
"At UV we contributed to the design and development of one of the most important parts of mission data analysis software. Plato’s main objective is to discover exoplanets and characterize their masses, radii, ages, etc. For this, the same values of their own stars have to be known very precisely. To do this, an automatic software is being developed to obtain many masses, radii and stellar ages from Plato data", explains Andrés Moya.
The need for automation is because Plato expects to observe hundreds of thousands of stars, so individual analysis is not feasible. In the UV, the module design is led which prepares all data for further analysis. "The data comes to us with a lot of pollution and our module cleans all that so that subsequent analyses have the least possible problems to perform their work," says the UV researcher.
Planet hunter PLATO will be the first scientific mission to travel aboard Ariane 6, Europe’s new heavy-lift rocket, equipped with two thrusters that will allow it to take off from the European Space Port in French Guiana at the end of 2026
In addition, the final observations have to be compared with stellar models to translate them into masses, radii and ages. "In the UV we also collaborate in the selection of the best code to carry out a part of this work, that of generating stellar pulsation modes and thus being able to apply a technique called astrosismology, of which in the UV we are experts. For this we have our own stellar pulsation code called GraCo, which is one of the ones that participates in the previous studies of mission preparation", says Andrés Moya.
Over the past 15 years, high-precision photometric space missions developed by the world’s leading space agencies have driven significant advances in stellar physics and exoplanet science. In this context, ESA’s innovative PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillation of stars) mission has been designed to discover potentially habitable planets around stars similar to our Sun. Its aim is to study in detail thousands of exoplanets, with special attention to the terrestrial-rocky type and composed mainly of silicon, oxygen and metals- in contrast to gaseous giants like Jupiter or Saturn.
The PLATO planet hunter will be the first scientific mission to travel aboard Ariane 6, Europe’s new heavy-lift rocket, equipped with two thrusters that will allow it to take off from the European Space Port in French Guiana at the end of 2026. The vehicle will be placed in orbit around the Lagrange L2 point of the Sun-Earth system, 1.5 million kilometres from the launch pad.
Over the past 15 years, high-precision photometric space missions developed by the world’s leading space agencies have driven significant advances in stellar physics and exoplanet science
To accomplish its mission, PLATO will use 26 cameras to observe more than 200,000 stars simultaneously for planets orbiting around it. To detect them, the transit method will be applied, which consists of detecting the light block that occurs when a planet passes in front of its host star. By analysing this darkening, the size, mass and density of the planet can be determined. Its scientific instrumentation is the result of collaboration between ESA and the Plato Mission Consortium, a consortium bringing together European research centres, institutes and industries.
Spain plays a key role in the PLATO mission, providing the on-board computers that will process all scientific data and images, as well as the thermomechanical structures of the 26 cameras and the thermal vacuum calibration of 10 of them. It is also involved in the development and implementation of new tools for the analysis and processing of data that the satellite will generate during the four years following its launch, scheduled for the end of 2026.
The PLATO Spain consortium includes members from seven prominent Spanish research centres: University of Valencia (UV), Astrophysical Institute of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), Astrophysical Institute of Canarias (IAC), Astrobiology Center (CAB-CSIC/INTA), National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), Institute of Space Sciences (ICE), University of Granada (UGR).
The Ariane 6 first flew in July last year, and its second launch is scheduled for next March, with an intensification of missions in the following months. This heavy rocket, the latest in Europe, has been designed to offer great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. Its configuration, which includes an improved main stage, the choice of two or four powerful thrusters and a new rebootable upper stage, improves efficiency and versatility for a wide range of missions.
Source: UV News