Europe's Cheops telescope will profile distant planets

[Judi Lynn]

By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent
16 December 2019

Europe will launch a space telescope on Tuesday to study far-off worlds.

Called Cheops, it's a different kind of mission to previous efforts in that it won't be trying to find new planets.

Rather, it's going to follow up the discoveries of others, to see if it can reveal new insights - such as whether these distant objects are likely to be rocky or gas-rich.

The telescope will ride to orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana.

. . .

Cheops (short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is a joint endeavour of 11 member states of the European Space Agency (Esa), with Switzerland in the lead.

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50804258

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. I heard a brief story about this on NPR earlier today.

I need to see what My Son The Astronomer knows about this telescope. He is himself doing exo-planet research.

[nitpicker]

2. Launch postponed

Per BBC radio.

update: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50804258

(snip)
The telescope will ride to orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana.

The mission was scheduled for an early morning lift-off on Tuesday, but a late technical glitch related to the rocket's upper-stage Fregat booster stopped the countdown. A launch attempt on Wednesday may be possible if the issue can be resolved.
(snip)

[nitpicker]

3. Cheops launched

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50804258

(snip)
The European Cheops space telescope has launched to study planets outside our Solar System.

The observatory will follow up the discoveries of previous missions, endeavouring to reveal fresh insights on the nature of distant worlds: What are they made of? How did they form? And how have they changed through time?

The telescope is being taken into orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket that set off from French Guiana at 08:54 GMT.

The journey should take 145 minutes.
(snip)