Cheops observations revealed a fourth planet orbiting farther from LHS 1903 than the previously known three planets.
An international team led by Thomas Wilson of the University of Warwick used ESA's Cheops satellite along with other space and ground based observatories to study the red dwarf star LHS 1903 and its planets.
Cheops is designed to measure exoplanet sizes and orbits with high precision to help link planetary properties to their formation histories.
Europe's exoplanet-probing Cheops space telescope detected a fourth planet in the LHS 1903 system that is rocky and lies farther out than two gas giants in the system.
Cheops observations discovered a fourth small planet in the LHS 1903 system that is the most distant from the star and is rocky.
Experience and knowledge gained from the Cheops mission will support the future PLATO and Ariel missions.
Gaetano Scandariato is a researcher at INAF, a coauthor of the LHS 1903 study, and the National Scientific Responsible for the Cheops mission.
Cheops observations revealed that the outermost planet in the LHS 1903 system is rocky.
ASI researcher Manuele Gangi is responsible for Cheops scientific activities at the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana.
The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) of the European Space Agency detected structural anomalies in the planetary system orbiting the star LHS 1903.
Redwire’s expanded European operations support European Space Agency programs including Cheops, Proba-3, Euclid, the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism for the lunar Gateway, and the Hera mission.
CHEOPS was launched in December 2019 to characterize exoplanets orbiting nearby stars by observing known planets between Earth and Neptune sizes and precisely measuring their radii to determine density and composition.
The 2019-12-18 Soyuz launch also carried an Italian radar reconnaissance satellite and the European exoplanet-hunting telescope CHEOPS.
Arianespace scheduled a Soyuz mission for 2019-12-17 carrying the Italian Cosmo-SkyMed second-generation radar satellite, the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS telescope, and three smallsat secondary payloads.