Talk abstract details

In this talk I present the PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) mission, a next generation ESA Cosmic Vision satellite project dedicated to the detection of exo-planets and to asteroseismology of their host-stars using ultra-high precision photometry. The main goal of the PLATO mission is to provide a full statistical analysis of exo-planetary systems around stars that are bright and nearby enough for detailed follow-up studies. The mission design proposed by the PLATO Consortium will enable a continuous monitoring of stars with brightness between V(mag)=4 and 13, in two large fields (>1800 square-degrees) each for three years with 95% duty-cycle and a subsequent step-and-stare phase of one year. Asteroseismology of more than 20000 cool dwarfs that will be observed at a precision better than 27 ppm/h is expected to provide estimates of the mass, age and radius at a precision of a few percent. Key asteroseismological questions like the treatment of convection, core overshooting, internal rotation rates will be tackled in great detail. A sample of more than 300000 stars that will be measured with a precision better than 80 ppm/h will significantly enhance our knowledge about the distribution of exo-planets down to sub-earth size.

A first stage of selection of the Cosmic Vision missions will be made in February 2010.