UK firm wins €42m contract to help hunt exoplanets

Two PLATO concepts (Credit: ESA)

PLATO (Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) will carry 26 telescopes mounted on a single satellite platform, enabling it to survey huge areas of sky simultaneously. Each telescope will be equipped with four Teledyne e2v Charge Coupled Device (CCD) visible-light detectors. The detectors work by measuring the dimming of a star’s light when a planet passes in front of it, allowing scientists to predict which exoplanets may have atmospheric conditions conducive to life.

“The basic principle is similar to detectors that are used in digital cameras, but those used in PLATO are very much larger and more sensitive,” Teledyne e2v’s Dr Paul Jorden told The Engineer. “The detectors are made of silicon which converts light from the stars into electrons which can then be read out through an integrated circuit.”

So far, astronomers know of several thousand exoplanets orbiting stars outside our solar system. Many of these were discovered by PLATO’s predecessors, the Kepler and CoRoT space missions, which were also equipped with Teledyne e2v’s CCD detectors.