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Late 2026
In development
Lagrange point 2
Astrophysics observatory
Plato is designed to find Earth-size planets in orbits up to the habitable zone of Sun-like stars. Using a total of 26 cameras, Plato’s large field of view will enable simultaneous observations of a greater number of bright stars and for longer periods than has been possible with previous missions. Plato will assemble the first catalogue of confirmed and characterised planets with known densities, compositions and ages, which will include temperate terrestrial planets orbiting Sun-like stars. Plato will be able to measure the oscillations of stars – starquakes – with unprecedented precision. By increasing the number of stars studied with this technique by nearly 100-fold, Plato will revolutionise our understanding of stellar evolution.
Artist’s animation of the Plato mission in space showing the 26 cameras. Credit: ESA.
We want to uncover the secrets of exoplanets by addressing key questions about their properties, and the star they orbit:
Understand planetary system formation:
How do planetary systems form and evolve?
Analyse interactions between exoplanets and stars:
What is the dependency of exoplanets properties on the star they orbit?
Probe stellar interiors:
What is the internal structure of stars and how does it evolve?
Study the composition and age of exoplanets:
Are there potentially habitable planets?
Plato will use high-precision photometry to detect and characterise exoplanets and their host stars. The 26 cameras of the spacecraft will track tiny changes in starlight, uncovering distant, Earth-like planets by spotting their transits across stars. By combining transit data with asteroseismology and ground based observations, Plato will reveal details about exoplanet sizes, masses, ages, orbits, and habitability conditions.
Credit: ESA. Instruments list: 24 “normal” cameras and two “fast” cameras.
Plato builds on Cheops and CoRoT, ESA's first-ever mission on exoplanets. Cheops is currently characterising exoplanets known to be orbiting around nearby bright stars. Scheduled for launch in 2029, Ariel will follow the lead of Plato, Cheops and CoRoT to look at the atmospheres of exoplanets and discover what they are made of.
The Plato payload is jointly developed by ESA and the Plato Mission Consortium (PMC). The PMC – composed of various European research centres, institutes and industries from over 20 different countries – furthermore contributes to the mission science ground segment processing Plato data. The spacecraft is being built and assembled by prime contractor OHB, together with Thales and Beyond Gravity.
Asteroseismology is a field of astronomy that studies the internal structure and dynamics of stars by analysing their oscillations. Credit: ESA/ATG.
Space is quiet, as no sound can propagate through the vacuum. Billions of stars try to overcome this silence with their songs, but to no avail. As their music contains a lot of information, scientists searched for a way to listen. Stars’ sounds are created when they expand and contract, and during this process their brightness oscillates along with the expansion and contraction. Because scientists have found these small brightness variations in gathered starlight, they can now ‘hear’ the music. ESA’s Plato mission will look for the oscillations and reveal the orchestra of many stars.
Explore a subset of the ESA Science Programme missions here. Additional mission pages are in progress.
The currently available mission pages are ESA's flagship missions launched from 2013 and to be launched (L-class), and the ones in development (M- and F-class).
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