Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Giovanna Tinetti: "What is the 'standard model' of planets?"

A telescope to study the atmospheres of planets beyond our Solar System will be launched by the European Space Agency in the late 2020s.

The mission, to be known as Ariel, was selected by the organisation's Science Programme Committee on Tuesday.

The venture will be led scientifically from the UK by University College London astrophysicist Giovanna Tinetti.

"In the next decade we will see many, many planets being discovered - thousands, actually," she said.

"All this is amazing, but we want to go beyond that and start to understand the nature of those planets, how they formed, how they evolved, and ultimately to put our Solar System in the bigger picture," the principal investigator told BBC News.

Ariel will use a metre-sized mirror and instrumentation designed to analyse, in visible and infrared light, the chemical make-up of the gases that shroud distant worlds, or exoplanets as they are known.

This information should provide insights on how certain types of planets come to form around particular stars.

Prof Tinetti explained: "We want to sample lots of planets - some that are small like the Earth or very big like Jupiter; and at different temperatures - extremely hot, warm or temperate - around very different types of stars.

"We want to sample all the extremes and the more normal cases, because what we want to try to understand is the 'standard model' for planets, if such a model even exists."

Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey)

Image copyright ESA/STFC RAL Space/UCL/Europlanet-Science Office Image caption Artwork: The mission will cost on the order of half a billion euros

Ariel is the latest selection in Esa's Medium Class portfolio. To win the launch opportunity in 2028, the proposal had to beat competition from an X-ray telescope (Xipe) and a mission to study energetic particles around the Earth (Thor).

A detailed technical assessment will now be conducted before the Ariel project is formally "adopted" - Esa legal-speak for "final go-ahead". This sign-off, which should happen in the next two years, paves the way for manufacture of the flight hardware.

Ariel is the third exoplanet venture chosen by Esa in recent years.

Image copyright Max Alexander Image caption Prof Tinetti has already been working on the concept for the better part of 10 years

Already coming down the line is a small telescope called Cheops that should go up next year to better measure the size of these far-off worlds; and this will be followed in 2026 by Plato, a telescope that aims to find "true Earths" - planets the same size as our home world that orbit at the same distance from Sun-like stars.

And the Americans, too, have their dedicated planet-hunters, with the newest, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess), launching in the next few weeks.

But at some point, the science of exoplanets has to move beyond simply finding and counting objects; their chemical compositions and physical conditions have to be determined.

The telescope that will start to make big inroads into this problem is the James Webb observatory, the successor to Hubble.

Due in orbit next year, it will study planetary atmospheres in exquisite detail with its 6.5m-diameter mirror. But the US space agency-led mission will probably only get to look at perhaps 150-200 exoplanets in its first five years of operation because of all the other demands on its time from astronomers.

Ariel, on the other hand, will have the single quest and that should see it characterising in the region of 500-1,000 planets during its primary years in orbit.

Steady platform

And one aspect that would work in Ariel's favour is the absence of any moving parts in its build, commented Plato team-member Dr Don Pollaco from Warwick University, UK.

"The issue with all of these planet experiments is that the signals you are looking for are so incredibly small that any systematics in the instrument itself will dominate the signal," he explained.

"And the systematics are often associated with bits that move. So the great thing about Ariel is that it is fixed-format - nothing changes," he told BBC News.

Ariel is likely to cost Esa about €460m (£405m) for the spacecraft chassis, the launch vehicle and operations. As is customary for science missions like this, the agency's individual member states pick up the cost of the scientific payload.

The UK will have the technical lead on the project and the instrumentation therefore will be assembled at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire.

Dr Graham Turnock, the chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: "It is thanks to the world-leading skills of our innovative space community that a UK-led consortium has been chosen to take forward the next ESA science mission. This demonstrates what a vital role we continue to play in European collaboration on research in space.

"The Ariel mission is a prime example of the scientific innovation underpinning the wider economy. It relies on the UK's science and engineering expertise, which are at the forefront of the government's Industrial Strategy."

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos</s>March 20 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency has given the go-ahead to its next medium-class science mission, ARIEL.

The Atmospheric Remote‐sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large‐survey mission was selected on Tuesday as the newest member of the Cosmic Vision program. ARIEL will be the program's fourth medium-class project.

ARIEL's primary scientific mission will be to study the planet formation process around other stars, with a specific focus on the evolution of alien atmospheres.

"ARIEL can really give us a full picture of what exoplanets are made of, how they form and how they evolve," Giovanna Tinetti, a planetary scientist at University College London and lead scientist for the mission, told Nature.

The probe's spectrograph will study changes in light as it passes through the gases surrounding faraway exoplanets, revealing the chemical composition of alien worlds. ARIEL's instruments will be able to measure chemical changes across the surface of an alien planet, as well as changes across different atmospheric layers. Its observations will also reveal seasonal variability among the atmospheres of distant exoplanets.

By analyzing the chemical makeup and evolution of various alien worlds, scientists will be able to more accurately estimate which exoplanets could potential harbor life.

"Ariel is a logical next step in exoplanet science, allowing us to progress on key science questions regarding their formation and evolution, while also helping us to understand Earth's place in the universe," said Günther Hasinger, ESA's director of science.

ESA has plans for three-other medium-class projects, but has yet to launch them.

The Solar Orbiter mission, featuring a probe designed to make close-up observations of the sun, is scheduled to launch in February 2019. The Euclid mission, set to launch in 2020, will focus on the study of dark matter. The PLATO, which launches in 2026, will measure stellar oscillations caused by the orbits of exoplanets.</s>LONDON, March 21 (APP):A multi-million-pound European mission to study newly discovered planets will be led by University

 College London, supported by investment from the UK Space Agency, a United Kingdom government statement issued here said.

 The ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey) mission was selected on Wednesday as the next European Space Agency (ESA) science mission, putting UK leadership at the heart of research into planets that lie outside our solar system – exoplanets.

 Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge diversity of masses, sizes, and orbits, but very little is known about their chemical composition, formation, or their evolutionary links

 to their host stars.

 ARIEL will carry out the first ever large-scale survey of exoplanets specifically to examine their atmospheres. It will study hot, Jupiter-size planets close to their stars, and so will help scientists understand the key processes which form planetary systems and affect how they evolve.

 Science Minister Sam Gyimah said: “Space is our final frontier and, working with UCL, we want

 to be at the forefront of discovering new planets. British involvement in this incredibly exciting new

 mission demonstrates how integral our world-leading scientific expertise is in solving some of

 space’s greatest mysteries.

 “The UK is a go-to destination for research and discovery, being home to some of the brightest

 and best talents. Through our modern Industrial Strategy and record funding for R&D, increasing investment to around £12 billion by 2021, we will continue to do all we can to boost our world-leading science sector and build a Britain fit for the future.”

 ESA’s Science Programme Committee chose ARIEL for the fourth medium-class science mission (M4) in its Cosmic Vision Programme. Subject to further review, the UK Space Agency will provide a multi-million-pound investment package to support UK leadership of the project.

 Dr Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “It is thanks to the world-leading skills of our innovative space community that a UK-led consortium has been chosen to take forward the next ESA science mission. This demonstrates what a vital role we continue to play in European collaboration on research in space.

 “The ARIEL mission is a prime example of the scientific innovation underpinning the wider

 economy. It relies on the UK’s science and engineering expertise, which is at the forefront of the Government’s Industrial Strategy.”

 The mission’s Principal Investigator is Professor Giovanna Tinetti, from University College

 London, who will lead the mission science. STFC RAL Space will manage the overall European consortium building the payload, which will be assembled and tested in Harwell, Oxfordshire. Other

 UK involvement will come from Cardiff University, Oxford University, and the UK Astronomy

 Technology Centre. UK industry can also expect to be involved in the satellite’s construction and operations.

 Prof Giovanna Tinetti of UCL said: “Although we’ve now discovered around 3800 planets orbiting other stars, the nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious. ARIEL will study a statistically large sample of exoplanets to give us a truly representative picture of what these planets are like.

 This will enable us to answer questions about how the chemistry of a planet links to the environment

 in which it forms, and how its birth and evolution are affected by its parent star.”

 The ARIEL Consortium Project Manager, Paul Eccleston, of STFC RAL Space, said: “It is

 wonderful news that ESA has selected ARIEL for the next medium-class science mission. The team

 are very excited to have the opportunity to realize the mission we’ve been developing for the last two years.

 ARIEL will revolutionize our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve, helping

 us put our own solar system into context and compare it to our neighbors in the galaxy.”

 The UK’s central roles in ARIEL build on our international leadership in astronomy and planetary science, and will complement the science being delivered by the European Space Agency’s Gaia

 and PLATO missions, and by the NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope, all missions with major

 UK involvement.</s>UCL is to lead the €450m ARIEL mission to study newly discovered planets after it was chosen as the next European Space Agency (ESA) science expedition.

Due for launch in mid-2028, ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey) will set out over four years to answer fundamental questions about how planetary systems form and evolve.

The spacecraft will do this by observing 1000 planets orbiting distant stars and conducting the first large-scale survey of the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres. ESA’s Science Programme Committee announced the selection of ARIEL from three candidate missions on 20th March 2018.

The ARIEL mission has been developed by a consortium of more than 60 institutes from 15 ESA member state countries, including UK, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Hungary, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal, with an additional contribution from NASA in the USA currently under study.

UK institutions have provided the leadership and planning for ARIEL, including UCL, STFC RAL Space, STFC UK ATC, Cardiff University and Oxford University.

ARIEL’s Principal Investigator, Prof Giovanna Tinetti of UCL said, “Although we’ve now discovered around 3800 planets orbiting other stars, the nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious.

“ARIEL will study a statistically large sample of exoplanets to give us a truly representative picture of what these planets are like. This will enable us to answer questions about how the chemistry of a planet links to the environment in which it forms, and how its birth and evolution are affected by its parent star.”

ARIEL will study a number of exoplanets – ranging from Jupiter- and Neptune-size planets down to so-called super-Earths – in a variety of environments, but will focus mainly on warm and hot planets in orbits close to their star.

The high temperatures on these planets, which can be in excess of 2000 degrees Celsius, keep different molecular species circulating throughout the atmosphere, where they can be detected and studied. Similarly, as more molecules from the planet’s interior make their way into the atmosphere, ARIEL will be provided with better information about the planet’s internal composition and the formation of the planetary system.

ARIEL will be equipped with a meter-class telescope primary mirror to collect visible and infrared light from distant star systems. A spectrometer will then extract the chemical fingerprints of gases in the planets’ atmospheres, which become embedded in starlight when a planet passes in front or behind the star. A photometer and guidance system will capture information on the presence on clouds in the atmospheres of the exoplanets and will allow the spacecraft to point to the target star with high stability and precision.

The payload for ARIEL will be amongst the first to be assembled and tested at the STFC RAL Space National Satellite Test Facility, which is due to open in mid-2020 following a £99m investment as part of the UK government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
• Instrumentation: Three photometric channels and three low resolution spectrometers covering from 0.5 to 7.8 microns in wavelength
• ESA Mission Cost: ~€450m, plus nationally funded contribution of the payload

CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENGINEERING NEWS</s>Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote‐sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large‐survey mission, was selected by ESA today as part of its Cosmic Vision plan.

The mission addresses one of the key themes of Cosmic Vision: What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life?

Thousands of exoplanets have already been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits, but there is no apparent pattern linking these characteristics to the nature of the parent star. In particular, there is a gap in our knowledge of how the planet's chemistry is linked to the environment where it formed, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet's evolution.

Ariel will address fundamental questions on what exoplanets are made of and how planetary systems form and evolve by investigating the atmospheres of hundreds of planets orbiting different types of stars, enabling the diversity of properties of both individual planets as well as within populations to be assessed.

Observations of these worlds will give insights into the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation, and their subsequent evolution, in turn contributing to put our own Solar System in context.

"Ariel is a logical next step in exoplanet science, allowing us to progress on key science questions regarding their formation and evolution, while also helping us to understand Earth's place in the Universe," says Günther Hasinger, ESA Director of Science.

"Ariel will allow European scientists to maintain competitiveness in this dynamic field. It will build on the experiences and knowledge gained from previous exoplanet missions."

The mission will focus on warm and hot planets, ranging from super-Earths to gas giants orbiting close to their parent stars, taking advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres to decipher their bulk composition.

Ariel will measure the chemical fingerprints of the atmospheres as the planet crosses in front of its host star, observing the amount of dimming at a precision level of 10–100 parts per million relative to the star.

As well as detecting signs of well-known ingredients such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane, it will also be able to measure more exotic metallic compounds, putting the planet in context of the chemical environment of the host star.

For a select number of planets, Ariel will also perform a deep survey of their cloud systems and study seasonal and daily atmospheric variations.

Ariel's metre-class telescope will operate at visible and infrared wavelengths. It will be launched on ESA's new Ariane 6 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou in mid 2028. It will operate from an orbit around the second Lagrange point, L2, 1.5 million kilometres directly 'behind' Earth as viewed from the Sun, on an initial four-year mission.

Following its selection by ESA's Science Programme Committee, the mission will continue into another round of detailed mission study to define the satellite's design. This would lead to the 'adoption' of the mission – presently planned for 2020 – following which an industrial contractor will be selected to build it.

Ariel was chosen from three candidates, competing against the space plasma physics mission Thor (Turbulence Heating ObserveR) and the high-energy astrophysics mission Xipe (X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer).

Explore further: ARIEL mission to reveal 'Brave New Worlds' among exoplanets</s>British scientists are to play a leading role in a new European Space Agency (Esa) mission to study the atmospheres of planets beyond the solar system.

The Ariel space telescope, due to be launched in 2028, will spend four years observing 1,000 “exoplanets” orbiting distant stars.

It will carry out the first large-scale survey of exoplanet atmospheric chemistry, focusing on warm and hot worlds orbiting close to their parent stars.

Esa has announced that Ariel will be its next medium class science mission.

Ariel’s principal investigator, Professor Giovanna Tinetti, from University College London, said: “Although we’ve now discovered around 3,800 planets orbiting other stars, the nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious.

“Ariel will study a statistically large sample of exoplanets to give us a truly representative picture of what these planets are like. This will enable us to answer questions about how the chemistry of a planet links to the environment in which it forms, and how its birth and evolution are affected by its parent star.”

Ariel will be placed in orbit around Lagrange Point 2 (ESA/STFC RAL Space/UCL/Europlanet-Science Office/PA)

Ariel stands for Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey. It was developed by a consortium of more than 60 institutes from 15 Esa member states, including the UK.

The spacecraft will be launched from Kourou in French Guiana and stationed at Lagrange Point 2 (L2), an orbital “parking spot” 1.5 million kilometres (0.9 million miles) away where the gravity of the Earth and sun balance out.

Science minister Sam Gyimah said: “Space is our final frontier and, working with UCL, we want to be at the forefront of discovering new planets.

“British involvement in this incredibly exciting new mission demonstrates how integral our world-leading scientific expertise is in solving some of space’s greatest mysteries.”</s>Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey mission, was selected by ESA as part of its Cosmic Vision plan. The mission addresses one of the key themes of Cosmic Vision: What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life?

Related Post:NigComSat-2 and -3 framework agreement signedGomSpace, AISTECH sign delivery agreement for 100 nanosatellitesOrbital begins production of 81 satellites for Iridium NEXTSSTL delivers 22nd Galileo FOC payloadRussia may sell rocket engines to ChinaSENER and ESA reach an agreement for Proba 3 missionRUAG Space delivers Mars rover camera mastBall Aerospace completes integration milestone for GPIMSovrn</s>The project was chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) from three academic proposals, with the final selection announced today, 20 March 2018.

The ARIEL mission is intended to answer fundamental questions about how planetary systems develop over time. Over the course of four years, the ARIEL spacecraft, will observe 1000 planets orbiting distant stars and marks the first large-scale survey of the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres.

The instrument will have a meter-class mirror which will collect visible and infrared light from distant star systems. A spectrometer will spread this light into a ‘rainbow’ and extract the chemical fingerprints of gases in the planets’ atmospheres. A photometer and guidance system will then capture information on the presence on clouds in the atmospheres of the exoplanets and will allow the spacecraft to point to the target star with high stability and precision.

The ARIEL mission has been developed by a consortium of more than 60 institutes from 15 ESA member state countries, including UK, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Hungary, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal, with an additional contribution from NASA in the USA currently under study. UK institutions have provided the leadership and planning for ARIEL, including UCL, STFC RAL Space, STFC UK ATC, Cardiff University and the University of Oxford.

Scientists from Oxford’s Department of Physics will support the optical performance testing of the instrument alongside RAL Space. The team also have a strong interest in the atmospheric science data that the mission will generate, and will channel that into future projects.

ARIEL’s Principal Investigator, Professor Giovanna Tinetti of UCL said: “Although we’ve now discovered around 3800 planets orbiting other stars, the nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious. ARIEL will study a statistically large sample of exoplanets to give us a truly representative picture of what these planets are like. This will enable us to answer questions about how the chemistry of a planet links to the environment in which it forms, and how its birth and evolution are affected by its parent star.”

Discussing the announcement, Dr Neil Bowles, ARIEL Co-Investigator and Associate Professor in the department of Physics at Oxford, said: ‘This is fantastic news. Our experience of observing and exploring our Solar System has shown that each time we get new data we have to alter our understanding of how planets “work" significantly. With ARIEL surveying a large number of exoplanet atmospheres it will be fascinating to see how this extends beyond our Solar System and help us to form some context of how other planetary systems compare.’

ARIEL is set to launch in 2028 and will take-off from Kourou in French Guiana. It will be positioned to monitor Lagrange Point 2 (L2), a gravitational balance point 1.5 million kilometres beyond the Earth’s orbit of the Sun. A location that both shields the spacecraft from the Sun and offers an optimum clear view of the whole sky to maximise the possible target exoplanets for observations.
The European Space Agency announces a mission to study the atmospheres of exoplanets. Selected as Cosmic Vision medium class M4 mission, ARIEL is expected to launch in 2028.