Spacecraft to scan heavens for another Earth

Spacecraft to scan heavens for another Earth

By John von Radowitz and Vicky Shaw
A EUROPEAN spacecraft successfully blasted off yesterday, spearheading the search for another Earth among the stars.

The Corot space telescope is the first instrument capable of finding small rocky planets beyond our solar system.

Such a planet situated in the right orbit stands a good chance of having liquid water on its surface, and quite possibly life.

But scientists are not hopeful of finding any “little green men”.

Corot was launched into space by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 2.23pm Irish time.

Professor Ian Roxburgh, a European Space Agency (ESA) scientist who has been involved in Corot since its inception, said the launch had been successful.

The scientific instruments would take longer to check and calibrate, he said, with the first science data being taken “in about a month’s time”.

“We’re talking about [an announcement] in late summer” he said, adding that the mission hoped to detect “some planets similar to Earth”.

It will take more sophisticated space telescopes — planned in the next 10 years — to confirm the presence of an Earth-like planet with oxygen and liquid water.

But Corot will let scientists know where to point their lenses.

The spacecraft will monitor about 120,000 stars with its 10.5-inch (27cm) telescope, from a polar orbit 514 miles above the Earth.

Over a period of two-and-a-half years, it will focus on five to six areas of the sky, measuring the brightness of about 10,000 stars every 512 seconds.

measuring minute changes in brightness — caused when an object passes in front of a star — scientists hope to detect both large and small planets.

It is rocky worlds, no more than twice the size of the Earth, that will cause the most excitement.

Scientists expect to find between 10 and 40 of these smaller planets.

Star search

THE Corot telescope will lead the search for rocky worlds in the cosmos.

* The Corot telescope blasted off from Kazakhstan on a mission to scour space for the next two-and-a-half years in the hope of finding distant planets.

* Over 200 planets have been discovered outside our solar system using ground-based observatories, but scientists believe the spacecraft will find many more.

* The mission is led by the French space agency, CNES, which is working with six international partners: the European Space Agency, Austria, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Brazil.

* Corot will be set on to a polar orbit around the Earth and will find planets by detecting any tell-tale “dips” in light from a star using its telescope.

* The spacecraft will monitor about 120,000 stars from a polar orbit 514 miles above the Earth. It will focus on five to six areas of the sky, measuring the brightness of 10,000 stars every 512 seconds.

* Corot stands for “Convection Rotation and planetary Transits,” which describes the scientific goals of the mission.

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