COROT, is an important stepping stone in the European effort to find habitable, Earth-like planets around other stars. ESA joined the mission in October 2000 by agreeing to provide the optics for the telescope and test the payload at its European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands. COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits) is a mission led by the French National Space Agency, CNES. It is a 30-centimetre diameter space telescope designed to detect tiny changes in brightness from nearby stars. Launch is scheduled this year from Russia - occultation method searches for planetary transits when the planet passes in front of its parent star. The main pertinent parameters are:
1. The luminosity drop eta of the star :
eta = (RPl/R*)2
2. The geometric probability p of occultations
p = R*/a
3. The duration D of the transit
D = (P/pi).(R*/a)
where a is the orbital distance to the star and P the orbital period of the planet.
COROT will also be used to detect subtle brightness changes caused by sound waves that resonate through the star. These create a 'starquake' that sends ripples across the star's surface, altering its brightness.
The occultation method is one of the very few methods capable to detect Earth-sized planets in the Habitable Zone (HZ) of their parent star within the few next years.
The HZ around a star is defined as the orbital distance at which the planet temperature allows for liquid water. This is of paramount importance for the search for Life in the Universe.
ESA then plans to continue its search for with the launch of Darwin and the flotilla of spacecraft flying in formation will take pictures of Earth-like worlds
-occultation method gives acces to:
1. The orbital period, and thus the orbital distance to the star, of the planet
2. The radius of the planet deduced from the luminosity drop during the transit
3. The inclination i of the planetary orbit; this quantity becomes astrophysically interesting when compared to the equatorial plane of the parent star - deduced from its V.sin i and rotation period
other exo-planet missions to look out for are
NASA's TPF was a great design but got its funding cut
Funding TPF and splitting up NASA
and another ESA's Gaia, which seems to be going well
Gaia will map a billion stars