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The new Ariel Space Telescope examines the atmosphere of exoplanets
The European Space Agency ESA on Thursday gave the green light to the construction of the Ariel Space Telescope. Starting in 2029, the instrument will be used to study the atmospheres of exoplanets in detail.
The Ariel Space Telescope is expected to collect information on exoplanets starting in 2029. (ESA)
(sda / what)
Ariel (Atmospheric Infrared Large Exoplanet Detection Mission) will simultaneously measure the atmospheres of 1000 planets in the visible and infrared wavelength range. The central questions are what these exoplanets are made of, how they were born and how they develop and their atmospheres.
It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structure of exoplanets and their correlation with the environment of the respective star, reports ESA. This should close the knowledge gap on how a planet’s chemistry is related to the environment in which it formed and how a star affects the physical and chemical development of a planet.
On board Ariel is a one meter telescope with a spectrometer and a photometer. “These devices will analyze visible and, in particular, infrared light with unprecedented precision and then detect the slightest changes in starlight as exoplanets pass in front of the stellar disk. This will provide us with information on the chemical composition and even the clouds in the planet’s atmosphere, “explained Franz Kerschbaum of the University of Vienna’s Institute for Astrophysics.
Manuel Güdel of the Institute of Astrophysics, who is the chief scientist involved in the mission, is certain that the telescope “will find new types of planets – with atmospheres we do not encounter in our solar system”.
Swiss scientists are also involved in the project, such as astronomer Ravit Helled from the Institute of Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Zurich.
* Press release https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/ariel
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