General, Research, Technology

Cheops Space Telescope Prepares to Search for Alien Life

When it was discovered about two decades agothe first exoplanet, space agencies around the world launched a real “arms race”, competing among themselves in creating high-quality equipment to detect new unexplored worlds. According to the portal noticiasdelaciencia.com, the European Space Agency (ESA) has just launched a new telescope into Earth orbit to detect and analyze exoplanets. What exactly should we expect from a new space explorer?

Cheops Space Telescope

Why do we need a Cheops telescope?

After a one-day delay due to an incident withWith the launch, the Cheops satellite (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) launched into low Earth orbit on Wednesday, December 18 from the European Kourou space center in French Guiana aboard the Soyuz-Frigate rocket. The Cheops mission is a joint action by ESA and the Swiss space agency, which will analyze the already known exoplanets - super-earths whose sizes fluctuate between Earth and Neptune, measuring the slight changes that occur in the brightness of a star when planets pass by.

A unique task will be performed in orbitEarth at an altitude of 700 km with just one instrument - a photometer (a device that measures the intensity of light) operating on a telescope with an aperture of 30 centimeters. It is known that at present CHEOPS weighs about 273 kilograms and will operate in the heliosynchronous orbit for about 800 kilometers, conducting its first experiments. Ultra-high-precision photometric observations of bright stars with exoplanets will allow them to find out their exact sizes and masses, data on which will allow scientists to determine their density. Thus, in the very near future we will be able to obtain information about the composition of exoplanets, their origin and evolution.

See also: How long will the Hubble telescope last?

Development of the Cheops telescope

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Cheops - ESA's first satellite dedicated toobservations of exoplanets, which will pave the way for even more advanced missions over the next decade, thereby strengthening European leadership in the study of exoplanets. In order to raise interest in the development of astrophysics, the space telescope carries on board two titanium plates, on which 3000 miniatures drawn by European children are captured. In addition, in order to ensure uninterrupted communication between researchers from Earth and the satellite, the coordination of the object will take place from several stations at once: in addition to the ground stations Inta-Torrejon and Villafranca, the stations of Kiruna in Sweden and Troll in Norway will be used.

The spacecraft is currently locatedunder introductory works for further operation, after checking the basic operations of the satellite by ESA, as well as calibrating and establishing good communications with the ground segment, the Cheops mission will finally begin its unique mission.