European Space Agency adopts new mission to study exoplanets

Paris: On Thursday, the European Space Agency officially approved the “Ariel” mission, which is based on a telescope, to study the atmosphere of a group of planets outside the solar system.

This mission, scheduled for 2029, was under study. The agency’s decision paved the way for the tender to build the telescope.

The Ariel mission, located at the second Lagrange point, a hypothetical location 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, will observe planets that have a moderate warm climate and are equal to or greater than the mass of Earth, up to the size of large gaseous planets like Jupiter.

To date, more than 4,000 exoplanets have been observed, which are astronomical objects that orbit a star other than the sun. The first planet of this type was found in 1995.

The “Ariel” telescope, using a visible and infrared spectrophotometer, will analyze the chemical signature and characteristics of the planet’s atmosphere as it passes in front of its star.

And “Ariel”, which will target around a thousand astronomical objects in four years, is the European Space Agency’s third mission on exoplanets after “Cubes”, which launched in December 2019, and “Plateau”, which is scheduled to be released in 2026.