Plato’s artist impression

Artist impression of the European Space Agency’s Plato mission.

In this view we see the part of the spacecraft, called ‘payload’, that carries the 26 ultra-sensitive cameras and the structure extending outward like a pair of wings that holds the solar panels and acts as a sunshield. The dish sticking out at the bottom on the back of the satellite is the high-gain antenna used to communicate with ground stations.

Plato will use all its cameras simultaneously to stare at the sky and discover planets that orbit stars similar to our Sun, searching for potentially habitable worlds. The mission is designed to study thousands of exoplanets in detail, focussing on terrestrial ones, and uncover exomoons and rings around them. Plato will also fundamentally advance our understanding of the interior and evolution of stars by monitoring tiny intensity variations in the starlight it receives.