ESA extends the CHEOPS space mission

(CONNECT) CHEOPS, the joint space mission between the ESA and Switzerland led by the University of Bern in collaboration with University of Geneva, has, according to a statement, been extended until 2029. Launched at the end of 2019 from the European spaceport in French Guiana, the purpose of the mission is to explore planets outside our solar system, which are known as exoplanets. The mission was extended by three years in 2023 and, through close collaboration between universities, industry partners and the ESA, strengthens Switzerland’s long-term prospects as a research and technology hub.

“The precision of CHEOPS has exceeded all expectations, and the space telescope has become a key component in the arsenal of exoplanet research for astronomers in Europe and worldwide”, as Christopher Broeg, principal investigator of the CHEOPS mission and head of the CHEOPS consortium at the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) at the University of Bern, explains in the statement.

The mission comprises a consortium of over 100 scientists and engineers from a total of 11 European nations. The satellite was built over a five-year period at the University of Bern, with the scientific operations center for this based at the Department of Astronomy at the University of Geneva.

The space mission has led to the discovery of a new planet and the star LHS 1903, among other successes. Moreover, the deformation of an exoplanet was detected for the first time. The extended mission will now allow long-term observation programs to study new planetary systems in detail to be continued, in addition to the observation of rare long-term phenomena.

Another feature of the mission is the close integration with other space missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which allows synergies to optimally leveraged. The extension also facilitates the testing of new, innovative observation methods and techniques, according to the statement. ce/nta