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Unique exoplanet photobombs Cheops study of nearby star system

Written by  Monday, 28 June 2021 14:00
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While exploring two exoplanets in a bright nearby star system, ESA’s exoplanet-hunting Cheops satellite has unexpectedly spotted the system’s third known planet crossing the face of the star. This transit reveals exciting details about a rare planet “with no known equivalent”, say the researchers.

Notes for editors

‘Transit detection of the long-period volatile-rich super-Earth Nu2 Lupi d with CHEOPS’ by Delrez, L. et al. (2021) is published in Nature Astronomy. DOI: 10.1038/s41550-021-01381-5
Cheops data were obtained over six observation runs completed between 4 April and 6 July 2020, targeting four transits of planet b and three of planet c.

More about Cheops

Cheops is an ESA mission developed in partnership with Switzerland, with a dedicated consortium led by the University of Bern, and with important contributions from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

ESA is the Cheops mission architect, responsible for procurement and testing of the satellite, the launch and early operations phase, and in-orbit commissioning, as well as the Guest Observers’ Programme through which scientists world-wide can apply to observe with Cheops. The consortium of 11 ESA Member States led by Switzerland provided essential elements of the mission. The prime contractor for the design and construction of the spacecraft is Airbus Defence and Space in Madrid, Spain.

The Cheops mission consortium runs the Mission Operations Centre located at INTA, in Torrejón de Ardoz near Madrid, Spain, and the Science Operations Centre, located at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.

For more information, visit: https://www.esa.int/Cheops

For further information, please contact:

ESA Media Relations


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