For this mission, at Paris Observatory - PSL, engineers and researchers of the Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics - LESIA (Paris Observatory - PSL / CNRS / Sorbonne University / University of Paris) are responsible for several software aspects
– specification of the on-board and ground photometry processing software,
– supply of the flight software,
– specification of the scientific software allowing the characterization of the host stars.
The LESIA teams benefit from a unique expertise, acquired with the design and the realization of COROT, the first satellite in the world, working in space between 2006 and 2014 to detect exoplanets, and for which they had the scientific responsibility. "The contribution of the Paris Observatory - PSL teams to the PLATO mission, which is scheduled for launch in 2026, is the continuation of a captivating human adventure," says Fabienne Casoli, President of Paris Observatory - PSL.
Just as CoRoT did 20 years ago, PLATOwill scan the stars of the sky to study their oscillations, thus obtaining information on their internal structure, and also to search for periodic decreases in their luminosity, indicating the presence of planets around them. PLATO is designed to find Earth-mass planets in the habitability zone of solar-type stars, where water can be liquid.
