CHEOPS in search of exoplanets.

CHEOPS is one of the S-Class missions by the European Space Agency.

The CHEOPS (pronounced as Khey-ops) space telescope has completed 1000 days in orbit.

CHEOPS- CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite is a joint mission of ESA and the University of Bern in collaboration with the University of Geneva.

CHEOPS has recorded over 1 million of minutes of observation time. It has revealed exoplanets from every possible angle.

What does CHEOPS do?

CHEOPS doesn't directly search for exoplanets as it is incredibly hard to find them. Instead, it measures the effects of the stars caused by the planets orbiting them.

The goals of CHEOPS:

1) Accurately measure the sizes of small planets.

2) Discover more about the atmospheric conditions of the planets orbiting close to their parent stars.

To measure the sizes of the planets, CHEOPS uses the Method called PhotoTransometry.?

When a planet passes over its star, it blocks a tiny segment of light emitted by the start. This would cause a dip in the observation.?

CHEOPS specifically measures the planets with known masses to precisely calculate the size. Through this, astronomers can classify the planet's composition.

CHEOPS also observes hot jupiters. The planets with huge mass orbit insanely close to their stars.

Through data collected from CHEOPS, there were over fifty scientific papers published.

Through CHEOPS, scientists were able to measure the faint visible light from a planet 159 light years away from the constellation Pegasus. HD?209458b is one of the most studied exoplanets ever.

Millions of high-energy particles are being bombarded almost everywhere. For CHEOPS, due to the constant collisions and other factors, it is expected to work until September 2023. The team is working along with ESA to extend the mission until the end of 2025 or beyond.

The instruments onboard CHEOPS include:

The Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) (includes CCD detector)

The Baffle and Cover Assembly (BCA)

The Sensor Electronics Module (SEM)

The Back-End Electronics (BEE)

The discoveries of CHEOPS help us in answering one of the most mysterious questions that could ever exist: Are we alone in the universe?

Thanks for reading, for more information, please check the following links.

P.S: Image references were taken from these websites.

https://sci.esa.int/web/cheops/

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