December 2026 will mark a major milestone for Europe: the launch of PLATO, a space telescope aimed at finding Earth-like planets. More than just an exoplanet hunting mission, PLATO stands out with its scientific ambitions and cutting-edge technologies.
The ESA's PLATO mission, equipped with 26 cameras, aims to study terrestrial exoplanets and their characteristics.
Credit: ESA
Launched aboard the new Ariane-6 rocket, PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) seeks to discover potentially habitable worlds around stars similar to the Sun. This one-of-a-kind telescope will use 26 cameras to scan the cosmos and identify the characteristics of detected exoplanets.
Dr. David Brown from the University of Warwick recently presented the mission's advancements at a national astronomy meeting. The primary goal of PLATO is to find exoplanets in the habitable zone of their star, with the hope of finding an equivalent of the Earth-Sun pair. But beyond simple detection, it aims to precisely determine their masses, radii, and densities.
PLATO doesn't just search for planets; it also studies stars. Through asteroseismology, the study of stellar oscillations, scientists hope to gather precise information about the mass, radius, and age of observed stars. Among PLATO's multiple cameras, one is named after Arthur Eddington, the renowned British astronomer.
The PLATO camera system, comprising 24 "Normal" cameras and 2 "Fast" cameras, is designed to offer significant redundancy and the ability to identify false positives. This configuration maximizes the mission's field of view and scientific performance.
Ten of PLATO's final cameras have been built and tested, with the first one mounted on the optical bench earlier this year.
Credit: OHB System AG
The fabrication and testing of components are progressing rapidly. The front-end electronics of the cameras, provided by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London, are already in the calibration phase. The PLATO mission is therefore on track for its late 2026 launch, promising new discoveries about our Universe.