COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits) is a space mission led by the French Space Agency (CNES) in conjunction with the European Space Agency and other international partners. The mission has two objectives: to search for extrasolar planets, particularly those of large terrestrial size, and to perform asteroseismology by measuring solar-like oscillations in stars. It was launched at 14:28 GMT on December 27, 2006, atop a Soyuz 2.1b carrier rocket^[1][2] and reported first light on January 18, 2007^[3]. It is the first mission of its kind. It detected its first extrasolar planet, COROT-Exo-1b, in May 2007. For a project of the French Space Agency, see COROT. Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (portrait by Nadar) Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875) was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. ... December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (362nd in leap years). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the carrier rocket. ... This article is about the optical device. ... The Centre National dÉtudes Spatiales is the French government space agency (administratively, a public establishment of industrial and commercial character). Its headquarters are located in central Paris. ... ESA redirects here. ... An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet beyond the Solar System. ... The inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, their sizes to scale. ... Asteroseismology is the study of the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. ... The term solar-like oscillations refers to oscillations in other stars that are excited in the same way as those in the Sun, namely by convection in its outer layers. ... For alternate meanings of GMT, see GMT (disambiguation). ... December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (362nd in leap years). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the carrier rocket. ... is the 18th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Corot-Exo-1b is the first extrasolar planet to be detected by the French-led COROT Mission, in May 2007. ...

Overview

COROT consists of a 27 cm (10.6 inch) diameter afocal telescope with an array of spectroscopic detectors. The satellite has a launch mass of 630 kg, is 4.10 metres long, 1.984 metres in diameter and is powered by two solar panels ^[4]. A Russian Soyuz 2-1B rocket lifted the satellite into a circular polar orbit with an altitude of 827 km on 27 December 2006. The first scientific observation campaign started on February 3, 2007^[5]. Convex lens converging light rays A convex lens, or converging lens, is a lens that is curved outward (convex): the ends are narrow and the middle is wide. ... Spectroscopy is the study of spectra, ie. ... This article is about the carrier rocket. ... A polar orbit is an orbit in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the planet orbiting on each revolution. ... December 27 is the 361st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (362nd in leap years). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

Over its planned 2½ year mission it will observe perpendicular to its orbital plane, meaning there will be no Earth occultations, allowing 150 days of continuous observation. During the northern summer it will observe in an area around Serpens Cauda and during the winter it will observe in Monoceros. During the remaining 30 days between the two main observation periods, COROT will observe 5 other patches of sky. In this July, 1997 still frame captured from video, the bright star Aldebaran has just reappeared on the dark limb of the waning crescent moon in this predawn occultation. ... Serpens (the snake) is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was also one of the 48 listed by Ptolemy. ... Monoceros (IPA: , Greek: ) is a faint constellation on the winter night sky, surrounded by Orion to the east, Gemini to the north, Canis Major to the south and Hydra to the west. ...

The probe will monitor the brightness of stars, watching for the slight dimming that happens in regular intervals when planets transit their primary sun. COROT will be sensitive enough to detect rocky planets several times larger than Earth; it is also expected to discover new gas giants, which currently comprise almost all of the known extrasolar planets. 2003 Transit of Mercury The term transit or astronomical transit has two meanings in astronomy: A transit is the astronomical event that occurs when one celestial body appears to move across the face of another celestial body, as seen by an observer at some particular vantage point. ... The inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, their sizes to scale. ...

COROT will also undertake asteroseismology. It can detect luminosity variations associated with acoustic pulsations of stars. This phenomenon allows calculation of a star's precise mass, age and chemical composition and will aid in comparisons between the sun and other stars. Asteroseismology is the study of the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

In each field of view there will be one main target star for the asteroseismology as well as up to nine other targets. Simultaneously, it will be recording the brightness of 120,000 stars brighter than apparent magnitude 15.5 for the extrasolar planet study. It is expected that a few dozen planets will be found as a result of this project. The apparent magnitude (m) of a star, planet or other celestial body is a measure of its apparent brightness as seen by an observer on Earth. ...

Potential

Before the beginning of the mission, the team stated with caution that COROT would only be able to detect planets a few times to several times larger than Earth and that it was not specifically designed to detect habitable planets (it would instead assess their potential for habitability). According to the press release announcing the first results, COROT's instruments are performing with higher precision than had been predicted, and may be able to find planets down to the size of Earth.^[6] A habitable planet is a world on which human beings can subsist without too much life-support equipment. ...

Corot should be assumed to only detect a small percentage of planets within its detection range due to the low percentage of existing planets that would likely make transits from the angle of observation from our Solar System. Expectations are that any planetary systems detected within a suitable range for further observations will be followed up by the future Darwin and Terrestrial Planet Finder spacecrafts or other projects like Kepler (NASA), New Worlds Mission, or Space Interferometry Mission. This article is about the Solar System. ... Darwin is a proposed European Space Agency (ESA) mission designed to directly detect Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars, and search for evidence of life on these planets. ... Terrestrial Planet Finder - Infrared interferometer concept The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is a plan by NASA for a telescope system that would be capable of detecting extrasolar terrestrial planets. ... The Kepler Mission[1] is a space observatory being developed by NASA. It will search for extrasolar planets and will only be the second space-based telescope particularly constructed for that task (the first one being COROT) using Ball Aerospaces Kepler Space Observatory[2] satellite. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Artists concept of Space Interferometry Mission spacecraft The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), also called SIM PlanetQuest, is a NASA instrument originally expected to be launched in December of 2011; however due to budget cuts it will now launch no sooner than between October 2014 and April 2015. ...

Discoveries

On May 3, 2007, it was reported that COROT had discovered a 'hot Jupiter' orbiting a sun-like star 1,500 light years away. This planet has a radius approximately 1.78 times that of Jupiter, a mass approximately 1.3 times that of Jupiter, and orbits its parent star once every 1.5 days.^[7][8][9] Results from scientific research by COROT will be published in December 2007. Artists impression of roaster extrasolar planet HD 209458b (Osiris). ... For other uses, see Jupiter (disambiguation). ...

See also

• Kepler Space Observatory, another space mission to discover planets by transits.
• Eddington mission, now cancelled, was to have been a followup mission

Conceptual drawing of the Kepler Space Observatory Kepler is a space observatory planned by NASA that will search for extrasolar planets. ... The Eddington mission was a European Space Agency project that would have searched for Earth-like planets by 2008. ...

References

1. ^ http://smsc.cnes.fr/COROT/GP_actualite.htm
2. ^ http://spaceflightnow.com/tracking/index.html
3. ^ http://physicsweb.org/articles/news/11/1/13/1?rss=2.0
4. ^ http://smsc.cnes.fr/COROT/GP_satellite.htm
5. ^ First scientific observations by Corot. (in French)
6. ^ "COROT discovers its first exoplanet and catches scientists by surprise", ESA, May 3, 2007. 
7. ^ http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMCKNU681F_index_0.html
8. ^ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070503163458.htm
9. ^ http://www2.cnrs.fr/presse/communique/1093.htm

External links

• COROT Mission
• CNES Corot page
• COROT page at the Astronomical Observatory in Marseille-Provence
• ESA COROT page
• COROT Mission Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
• http://www.cnes.fr/html/_455_465_3820_.php
• Europe goes searching for rocky planets - spaceref.com
• Soyuz 2-1B launches with COROT
• Space telescope to hunt planets - BBC News
• Mission log