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The European Space Agency said Thursday that it is moving forward with an ambitious mission to study exoplanets and plans to begin by the end of the decade.
ESA said it will select a contractor to build a state-of-the-art spacecraft capable of studying various exoplanets for their composition and clues to their evolution.
The studies are part of ESA’s Ariel mission, which ESA says will launch in 2029.
Ariel, short for Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission, will be the first attempt to measure the chemical composition and thermal structures of distant exoplanets.
“Ariel will enable planetary research far beyond the borders of our solar system,” ESA Chief Science Officer Gunther Hasinger said in a statement.
“The adoption of Ariel solidifies ESA’s commitment to exoplanetary research and will ensure that European astronomers will be at the forefront of this revolutionary field for the next decade and beyond.”
Giovanna Tinetti, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at University College London, is the principal researcher of the mission. The spacecraft’s mirror system and instrumentation will be developed and tested by RAP Space in Oxfordshire, UK.
“We are very good at exoplanet research in [the UK]”Said Caroline Harper, head of science at the British Space Agency.” We have one of the largest scientific communities in the world. So, yes, we want to play an important role in Ariel, “said Caroline Harper, head of science at the British Space Agency.
Over the past 10 years, ESA has developed two more exoplanet-focused missions – one launched last year and another scheduled for 2026.
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