ESA’s Ariel Exoplanet Mission Enters Construction Phase
Ariel, ESA’s mission to identify the chemical elements in exoplanetary atmospheres, successfully passed the spacecraft preliminary design phase and now moves from the ‘drawing board’…
ARIEL News
ARIEL, which stands for Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, is a space mission led by the European Space Agency (ESA) aimed at studying the atmospheres of exoplanets. Scheduled for launch in 2029, ARIEL’s primary objective is to investigate the chemical composition, thermal structures, and cloud properties of a diverse range of exoplanet atmospheres. This mission is particularly focused on hot and warm planets orbiting close to their host stars, including both gas giants and smaller, rocky planets.
ARIEL will employ a meter-class telescope equipped with a spectrometer to analyze the light emitted or reflected by an exoplanet’s atmosphere, allowing scientists to determine its composition and dynamics. This mission is expected to provide insights into the formation and evolutionary histories of planetary systems, including our own. By surveying over 1,000 planets, ARIEL aims to deliver a statistical analysis of exoplanet atmospheres, which will help in understanding the physics and chemistry of these distant worlds.
ESA’s Ariel Mission Passes Critical Review, Poised To Unravel Mysteries of Distant Worlds
Ariel, ESA’s mission to study the chemical makeup of distant exoplanets, has cleared its Preliminary Design Review (PDR), marking a significant step toward its 2029…
How You Could Help Scientists Learn More About Exoplanets
Do you have experience with AI? If so, you could help scientists learn more about exoplanets Experts in artificial intelligence (AI) have been challenged to…
Airbus Will Build ESA’s Ariel Exoplanet Spacecraft
ESA and Airbus have signed a contract to move forward with the design and construction of the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, Ariel, planned for…
Planet Hunters: ESA’s New and Future Exoplanet Missions
ESA’s trifecta of dedicated exoplanet missions – Cheops, Plato, and Ariel – will also be complemented with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope mission. The…
NASA Instrument to Explore the Atmospheres of Exoplanets
NASA will contribute an instrument to a European space mission that will explore the atmospheres of hundreds of planets orbiting stars beyond our Sun, or…