Planet hunting telescope sees first light

by Stephen Withers

Thursday, 25 January 2007

The COROT telescope put into orbit to help find rocky planets in other solar systems has been successfully opened and its first observations have lived up to expectations.

As with previous work, COROT will not observe the exoplanets directly. Instead, their presence will be revealed by monitoring the slight changes in a star's appearance as the planet orbits around it.

The difference is that by moving the telescope beyond the Earth's atmosphere, the COROT project will be able to detect rocky planets, not just the gas giants previously found in Earthbound observations.

Astronomers expect to find between 10 and 40 rocky planets and tens of gas giants in each star field observed. The telescope will be aimed at a different field every 150 days.

The telescope will also be used to study the interiors of stars by using a technique called asteroseismology. An examination of the acoustical waves on a star's surface can reveal its mass, age and chemical composition.

The COROT project was initiated in 1996 by CNES, the French space agency. Other participants include the European Space Agency, Austria, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Brazil. The satellite was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on 27 December 2006.{moscomment}

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