 |
|
COROT space mission ready to search out new planets and map the interior of stars
December 21, 2006The COROT mission is scheduled for launch on the 27th December 2006, from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. COROT will detect planets orbiting around other stars and probe the secrets of stellar interiors as never before. COROT may discover the first planets elsewhere that closely resemble the Earth in size and composition. The mission is led by the French National Space Agency (CNES) to which the European Space Agency (ESA) and several partner nations are providing a particularly strong international 'flavour'.
While CNES is completing the preparation for the COROT launch, ESA and a large number of European scientists involved in the mission are eagerly waiting for this event to take place and for the first scientific results to arrive.
Professor Ian Roxburgh, of Queen Mary University London and the ESA member of the Scientific Committee, has been involved with COROT from its inception. He says "COROT is the first dedicated space mission to pursue both asteroseismology and planet-hunting, but the measurements required for both are essentially the same-high precision results on how the radiation from a star changes over time. A planet passing in front of a star can be detected by the fall in light from that star. Small oscillations of the star also produce changes in the light emitted which reveal what the star is made of and how they are structured internally. This data will provide a major boost to our understanding of how stars form and evolve. "
COROT (pronounced 'Coreau') stands for 'Convection Rotation and planetary Transits'. The name describes the scientific goals of the mission. 'Convection and rotation' refer to the capability of COROT to probe into stellar interiors studying the acoustic waves that ripple across the surface of stars (a technique called 'asteroseismology'). 'Transit' refers to the technique by which the presence of a planet orbiting a star can be inferred from the dimming starlight, caused when the planet passes in front of it. To accomplish its two scientific objectives, COROT will monitor about 120 000 stars with its 30-centimetre telescope.
COROT will lead a bold new search for planets around other stars. Since the discovery in 1995 of the first exoplanet, more than 200 other planets have been detected from ground-based observatories. COROT promises to find many more during its two-and-a-half-year mission, and to expand the frontiers of our knowledge towards ever smaller planets.
Many of the planets COROT will detect are expected to be 'hot-Jupiters'. An unknown percentage of the planets detected by COROT are expected to be rocky worlds, maybe just a few times larger than the Earth (or even smaller). If COROT finds these worlds, they will represent a new class of planet.
While it is looking at a star, COROT will also be able to detect 'starquakes', acoustic waves generated deep inside a star that send ripples across a star's surface, also altering its brightness. The exact nature of the ripples allows astronomers to calculate the star's precise mass, age and chemical composition and map the interior structure.
CNES is leading the mission and is partnered by ESA, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Brazil and Spain. CNES is responsible for the entire system and for the launch contract with the French-Russian company Starsem, who are providing a Soyuz launcher. The UK science funding agency, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) funds Professor Roxburgh to participate in COROT.
The contribution of the other international partners range from the provision of hardware units, to ground stations, complementary ground-based observations of the targets to be studied by COROT, and the analysis of the COROT scientific data to come.
ESA is playing a crucial role in the mission. It provided the optics for the telescope, sitting at the heart of the spacecraft, and testing of the payload. Through this collaboration, a number of European scientists have been selected as Co-Investigators in open competition. They come from Denmark, Switzerland, the UK and Portugal. As a result of ESA's participation in COROT, scientists from ESA's Member States will also be given access to the satellite's data.
ESA's SOHO spacecraft has been making asteroseismology observations on the Sun, so comparing COROT's data with SOHO will let scientists see how our parent star the Sun compares to other stars.
ESA plans to continue its search for Earth-like worlds in the second decade of the century with the launch of the Darwin mission. This flotilla of 4 or 5 spacecraft will take pictures of Earth-like worlds, allowing scientists to search for signs of life.
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC)
COROT (pronounced 'Coreau') stands for 'Convection Rotation and planetary Transits'. The name describes the scientific goals of the mission. 'Convection and rotation' refer to the capability of COROT to probe into stellar interiors studying the acoustic waves that ripple across the surface of stars (a technique called 'asteroseismology'). 'Transit' refers to the technique by which the presence of a planet orbiting a star can be inferred from the dimming starlight, caused when the planet passes in front of it. To accomplish its two scientific objectives, COROT will monitor about 120 000 stars with its 30-centimetre telescope.
COROT will lead a bold new search for planets around other stars. Since the discovery in 1995 of the first exoplanet, more than 200 other planets have been detected from ground-based observatories. COROT promises to find many more during its two-and-a-half-year mission, and to expand the frontiers of our knowledge towards ever smaller planets.
Many of the planets COROT will detect are expected to be 'hot-Jupiters'. An unknown percentage of the planets detected by COROT are expected to be rocky worlds, maybe just a few times larger than the Earth (or even smaller). If COROT finds these worlds, they will represent a new class of planet.
While it is looking at a star, COROT will also be able to detect 'starquakes', acoustic waves generated deep inside a star that send ripples across a star's surface, also altering its brightness. The exact nature of the ripples allows astronomers to calculate the star's precise mass, age and chemical composition and map the interior structure.
CNES is leading the mission and is partnered by ESA, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Brazil and Spain. CNES is responsible for the entire system and for the launch contract with the French-Russian company Starsem, who are providing a Soyuz launcher. The UK science funding agency, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) funds Professor Roxburgh to participate in COROT.
The contribution of the other international partners range from the provision of hardware units, to ground stations, complementary ground-based observations of the targets to be studied by COROT, and the analysis of the COROT scientific data to come.
ESA is playing a crucial role in the mission. It provided the optics for the telescope, sitting at the heart of the spacecraft, and testing of the payload. Through this collaboration, a number of European scientists have been selected as Co-Investigators in open competition. They come from Denmark, Switzerland, the UK and Portugal. As a result of ESA's participation in COROT, scientists from ESA's Member States will also be given access to the satellite's data.
ESA's SOHO spacecraft has been making asteroseismology observations on the Sun, so comparing COROT's data with SOHO will let scientists see how our parent star the Sun compares to other stars.
ESA plans to continue its search for Earth-like worlds in the second decade of the century with the launch of the Darwin mission. This flotilla of 4 or 5 spacecraft will take pictures of Earth-like worlds, allowing scientists to search for signs of life.
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC)
COROT surprises a year after launch
The space-borne telescope, COROT (Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits), has just completed its first year in orbit. The observatory has brought in surprises after over 300 days of scientific observations.
XMM-Newton reveals a tumbling neutron star
Using data from ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, an international group of astrophysicists discovered that one spinning neutron star doesn't appear to be the stable rotator scientists would expect.
Ultrabass Sounds of the Giant Star xi Hya: First Observations of Solar-type Oscillations in a Star Very Different fromthe Sun
About 30 years ago, astronomers realised that the Sun resonates like a giant musical instrument with well-defined periods (frequencies). It forms a sort of large, spherical organ pipe. The energy that excites these sound waves comes from the turbulent region just below the Sun`s visible surface. Observations of the solar sound waves (known as "helioseismology") have resulted in enormous progress in the exploration of the interior of the Sun, otherwise hidden from view. As is the case on Earth, seismic techniques can be applied and the detailed interpretation of the observed oscillation periods has provided quite accurate information about the structure and motions inside the Sun, our central
More Stellar Interior Current Events and Stellar Interior News Articles
 | Stellar Interiors - Physical Principles, Structure, and Evolution by Carl J. Hansen, Steven D. Kawaler, Virginia Trimble This text, designed for beginning students of stellar physics, introduces the fundamentals of stellar structure and evolution. In emphasizing the general picture of the life cycles of stars and the physics responsible, it also allows prospective specialists a taste of many of the detailed aspects of this mature discipline. The authors develop a solid foundation in important theory that is often... |
| Introduction to Stellar Atmospheres and Interiors by Eva Novotny | |
| Stellar Interiors: Physical Principles, Structure, and Evolution by C. J., and Kawaler, S. D. Hansen | |
| Physical processes in stellar interiors: (Fizicheskie protsessy vnutri zvezd) by D. A Frank-Kamenetskii | |
| Physical Processes in Stellar Interiors by FrankKamenetskiiD | |
 | Sounding Solar and Stellar Interiors (International Astronomical Union Symposia) Since 1975, and the identification of the solar 5-minute oscillations as global acoustic modes, helioseismology has proven to be a very active field. It enabled thorough investigation of the physical processes occurring inside the stars, thanks to the extreme precision of the measured frequencies. In 1995, a new step was achieved with the completion of the GONG network and the launch of the ... |
| Stellar Interiors by MenzelDonaldH | |
| The physics of stellar interiors: An introduction by Vincent C Reddish | |
| Stellar Interiors Volume Six (The International Astrophysics Series) by Donald H./Bhatnagar, Prabhu Lal/Sen, Hari Menzel | |
| Stellar interiors (The International astrophysics series) by Donald Howard Menzel |
| © 2008 BrightSurf.com |