12-17-2019, 12:25 PM
Europe will launch a space telescope on Tuesday to study far-off worlds.
Called Cheops, it's a different kind of mission to previous efforts in that it won't be trying to find new planets.
Rather, it's going to follow up the discoveries of others, to see if it can reveal new insights - such as whether these distant objects are likely to be rocky or gas-rich.
The telescope will ride to orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana.
Lift-off is scheduled for 05:54 local time (08:54 GMT).
Cheops (short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is a joint endeavour of 11 member states of the European Space Agency (Esa), with Switzerland in the lead.
It truly amazing that we are at a point in which we are able to observer extraterrestrial bodies, these discoveries could read to a completely change in our period table and the understanding of the universe around, the may lead to human extrapolation of resources from other planets...
Called Cheops, it's a different kind of mission to previous efforts in that it won't be trying to find new planets.
Rather, it's going to follow up the discoveries of others, to see if it can reveal new insights - such as whether these distant objects are likely to be rocky or gas-rich.
The telescope will ride to orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana.
Lift-off is scheduled for 05:54 local time (08:54 GMT).
Cheops (short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is a joint endeavour of 11 member states of the European Space Agency (Esa), with Switzerland in the lead.
It truly amazing that we are at a point in which we are able to observer extraterrestrial bodies, these discoveries could read to a completely change in our period table and the understanding of the universe around, the may lead to human extrapolation of resources from other planets...