Observations

Concept

The measurement principle of PLATO is to carry out high precision, long (months to years), uninterrupted photometric monitoring in the visible band of very large samples of bright (m_V ≤ 11–13) stars. The resulting light curves will be used for the detection of planetary transits, from which the planetary radii will be determined, and for the asteroseismology analysis to derive accurate stellar parameters and ages. Since the PLATO targets are bright, the masses of the detected planets can be determined from radial velocity observations at ground-based observatories.

The current baseline observing plan for the 4-year nominal science operations consists of long-duration observations of two sky fields lasting two years each. This will allow PLATO to cover about 10 per cent of the sky.

To continuously monitor the selected stars, so as not to miss any planetary transit, as well as to increase the signal-to-noise ratio for those transits and for asteroseismology mode detections, the science duty cycle of the mission has been set to be above 93%. Furthermore, periodic gaps will be avoided to keep disturbing peaks away from the frequencies of interest in the power spectrum of stellar oscillations.

Explore Further

• First observation field (LOPS2)
• PLATO Input Catalogue (PIC)