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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto

The PLATO 2.0 Mission

H. Rauer, C. Catala, C. Aerts, T. Appourchaux, W. Benz, A. Brandeker, J. Christensen-Dalsgaard, M. Deleuil, L. Gizon, M.-J. Goupil, M. Güdel, E. Janot-Pacheco, M. Mas-Hesse, I. Pagano, G. Piotto, D. Pollacco, N. C. Santos, A. Smith, J.-C. Suárez, R. Szabó, S. Udry, V. Zh. Adibekyan, Y. Alibert, J. -M. Almenara, P. Amaro-Seoane, M. Ammler-von Eiff, M. Asplund, E. Antonello, W. H. Ball, S. Barnes, F. Baudin, K. Belkacem, M. Bergemann, A. Birch, I. Boisse, A. S. Bonomo, F. Borsa, I. M. Brandão, E. Brocato, A. S. Brun, M. Burleigh, R. Burston, J. Cabrera, S. Cassisi, W. J. Chaplin, S. Charpinet, C. Chiappini, R. P. Church, Sz. Csizmadia, M. S. Cunha, M. Damasso, M. B. Davies, H. J. Deeg, F. de Oliveira Fialho, R. F. Díaz, S. Dreizler, C. Dreyer, P. Eggenberger, D. Ehrenreich, P. Eigmüller, A. Erikson, R. Farmer, S. Feltzing, P. Figueira, T. Forveille, M. Fridlund, R. García, G. Giuffrida, M. Godolt, J. Gomes da Silva, T. Granzer, J. L. Grenfell, A. Grotsch-Noels, E. Günther, C. A. Haswell, A. Hatzes, G. Hébrard, S. Hekker, R. Helled, K. Heng, J. M. Jenkins, A. Johansen, M. L. Khodachenko, K. G. Kislyakova, W. Kley, U. C. Kolb, N. A. Krivova, F. Kupka, H. Lammer, A. F. Lanza, Y. Lebreton, D. Magrin, P. Marcos-Arenal, P. M. Marrese, J. P. Marques, J. H. C. Martins, S. Mathis, S. Mathur, S. Messina, A. Miglio, J. Montalbán, M. Montalto, M. J. P. F. G. Monteiro, H. Moradi, E. Moravveji, C. Mordasini, T. Morel, A. Mortier, V. Nascimbeni, M. B. Nielsen, L. Noack, A. J. Norton, A. Ofir, M. Oshagh, R.-M. Ouazzani, P. I. Pápics, V. C. Parro, P. Petit, B. Plez, E. Poretti, A. Quirrenbach, R. Ragazzoni, G. Raimondo, M. Rainer, D. R. Reese, R. Redmer, S. Reffert, B. Rojas-Ayala, I. W. Roxburgh, S. K. Solanki, S. Salmon, A. Santerne, J. Schneider, J. Schou, S. L. Schuh, H. Schunker, A. Silva-Valio, R. Silvotti, I. Skillen, I. A. G. Snellen, F. Sohl, S. G. Sousa, A. Sozzetti, D. Stello, K. Strassmeier, M. Švanda, Gy. M. Szabó, A. Tkachenko, D. Valencia, V. Van Grootel, S. Vauclair, P. Ventura, F. W. Wagner, N. A. Walton, J. Weingrill, S. C. Werner, P. J. Wheatley, K. Zwintz

Abstract
PLATO 2.0 is a mission candidate for ESA’s M3 launch opportunity (2022/24). It addresses fundamental questions such as: How do planetary systems form and evolve? Are there other systems with planets like ours, able to develop life? The PLATO 2.0 instrument consists of 34 small aperture telescopes providing a wide field-of-view and a large photometric magnitude range. It targets bright stars in wide fields to detect and characterize planets down to Earth-size by photometric transits, whose masses can then be determined by ground-based radial-velocity follow-up measurements. Asteroseismology will be performed for stars =11mag to obtain highly accurate stellar parameters, including masses and ages. The combination of bright targets and asteroseismology results in high accuracy for the bulk planet parameters: 2%, 4-10% and 10% for planet radii, masses and ages, respectively. The foreseen baseline observing strategy includes two long pointings (2-3 years) to detect and bulk characterize planets reaching into the habitable zone (HZ) of solar-like stars and an additional step-and-stare phase to cover in total about 50% of the sky. PLATO 2.0 will observe up to 1,000,000 stars and detect and characterize hundreds of small planets, and thousands of planets in the Neptune to gas giant regime out to the HZ. It will therefore provide the first large-scale catalogue of bulk characterized planets with accurate radii, masses, mean densities and ages. This catalogue will include Earth-like planets at intermediate orbital distances, where surface temperatures are moderate. Coverage of this parameter range with statistical numbers of bulk characterized planets is unique to PLATO 2.0. The PLATO 2.0 catalogue allows us to e.g.: - complete our knowledge of planet diversity for low-mass objects, - correlate the planet mean density-orbital distance distribution with predictions from planet formation theories, - constrain the influence of planet migration and scattering on the architecture of multiple systems, and - specify how planet and system parameters change with host star characteristics, such as type, metallicity and age. The catalogue will allow us to study planets and planetary systems at different evolutionary phases. It will further provide a census for small, low-mass planets. This will serve to identify objects which retained their primordial hydrogen atmosphere and in general the typical characteristics of planets in such low-mass, low-density range. Detected planets by PLATO 2.0 will orbit bright stars and many of them will be targets for future atmosphere spectroscopy exploring their atmosphere. Furthermore, the mission has the potential to detect exomoons, planetary rings, binary and Trojan planets. The planetary science possible with PLATO 2.0 is complemented by its impact on stellar and galactic science via asteroseismology as well as light curves of all kinds of variable stars, together with observations of stellar clusters of different ages. This will allow us to improve stellar models and study stellar activity. A large number of well-known ages from red giant stars will probe the structure and evolution of our Galaxy. Asteroseismic ages of bright stars for different phases of stellar evolution allow calibrating stellar age-rotation relationships. Together with the results of ESA’s Gaia mission, the results of PLATO 2.0 will provide a huge legacy to planetary, stellar and galactic science.

Experimental Astronomy
Volume 38, Page 249
November 2014

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Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

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