Education

The U.Porto provides talent to the Ariel Space mission

  • Article

    Article

#ESA_STFC_missao_espacial_Ariel.jpg

ESA/STFC RAL Space/UCL/Europlanet-Science Office

The University of Porto (UP) is part of the European Space Agency mission Ariel, the first devoted to studying nature, the development and evolution of exoplanets, whose launch is scheduled to happen in 2029.

The study phase is concluded and the programme is now in the implementation phase; the purpose of such mission is to provide detailed information on exoplanets ‘atmosphere and relies with the talent of the researchers of the Astrophysics and Space Science Institute (IA) of the University of Porto and of the University of Lisbon, as well.

The specific role of the Portuguese team is to “lead one of the scientific goals of the mission, namely the synergies between the solar system planets and the exoplanets’ atmosphere”, as explained by Pedro Mota Machado, researcher at the IA/U.Lisboa and national representative of the mission.

According to Olivier Demangeon, researcher at the IA/U.Porto, “this mission announces a revolution at scientific level. By obtaining atmosphere spectra of circa 1000 exoplanets, Ariel will revolutionise this filed, by offering the chance to gaze at the exoplanets ’atmospheres as a population instead of isolated entities”.

Ariel is the first European Space Mission devoted to measuring the chemical components and thermal properties of the atmosphere of circa 1000 gaseous and rocky exoplanets, from the extremely hot to the temperate.