Uploaded December 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
PARIS — As the scientific world still basks in the incredibly detailed images of Saturn’s rings that were beamed back to Earth by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, the European Space Agency is starting to build a spacecraft that is designed to look far beyond the planets of our solar system. Here are the details:
The European Space Agency, or ESA, reports that it has signed a contract with Airbus to build ESA’s third exoplanet-probing spacecraft.
Dubbed Ariel, the spacecraft is expected to launch in 2029 on ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket. It will operate from the second Lagrange point, or L2, which is located 1.5 million kilometers directly behind Earth, when viewed from the Sun.
ESA says Ariel will feature advanced sensors and a very stable thermal and mechanical design, enabling it to carry out long-term observations of an exoplanet system for up to three days.
Ariel will study around one thousand extrasolar planets in visible and infrared wavelengths.
It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of exoplanets, linking each one to the environment of its host star.
Ariel will analyze these exoplanets to get an idea of how they formed and how they evolved.
ESA believes this data can help us find out whether there is life elsewhere in our Universe, and if there is another life-supporting planet like Earth.
If Ariel launches in 2029, it will become ESA’s third exoplanet-probing spacecraft after Cheops, which launched in 2019, and Plato, which is scheduled to launch in 2026.
SOURCES: ESA, BBC, Scitechdaily.com, Phys.org
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Airbus_will_build_ESA_s_Ariel_exoplanet_satellite
bbc.com/news/science-environment-59555684
scitechdaily.com/airbus-will-build-esas-ariel-exoplanet-spacecraft
phys.org/news/2021-12-airbus-esa-ariel-exoplanet-satellite.html
PARIS — As the scientific world still basks in the incredibly detailed images of Saturn’s rings that were beamed back to Earth by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, the European Space Agency is starting to build a spacecraft that is designed to look far beyond the planets of our solar system. Here are the details:
The European Space Agency, or ESA, reports that it has signed a contract with Airbus to build ESA’s third exoplanet-probing spacecraft.
Dubbed Ariel, the spacecraft is expected to launch in 2029 on ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket. It will operate from the second Lagrange point, or L2, which is located 1.5 million kilometers directly behind Earth, when viewed from the Sun.
ESA says Ariel will feature advanced sensors and a very stable thermal and mechanical design, enabling it to carry out long-term observations of an exoplanet system for up to three days.
Ariel will study around one thousand extrasolar planets in visible and infrared wavelengths.
It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of exoplanets, linking each one to the environment of its host star.
Ariel will analyze these exoplanets to get an idea of how they formed and how they evolved.
ESA believes this data can help us find out whether there is life elsewhere in our Universe, and if there is another life-supporting planet like Earth.
If Ariel launches in 2029, it will become ESA’s third exoplanet-probing spacecraft after Cheops, which launched in 2019, and Plato, which is scheduled to launch in 2026.
SOURCES: ESA, BBC, Scitechdaily.com, Phys.org
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Airbus_will_build_ESA_s_Ariel_exoplanet_satellite
bbc.com/news/science-environment-59555684
scitechdaily.com/airbus-will-build-esas-ariel-exoplanet-spacecraft
phys.org/news/2021-12-airbus-esa-ariel-exoplanet-satellite.html
