From 25 to 27 September, the INAF-Astrophysical Observatory of Catania will host a workshop dedicated to PLATO, the 3rd mission of class M in the ESA Cosmic Vision program.
Its main goal is detecting terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of solar type stars. With its huge FOV, most of the PLATO targets are bright stars that will be monitored with high cadence (25 s) for 2-3 years during the long duration observing program, while contemporary a number of very bright stars in the sample will be observed with 2.5 s cadence. The collected data, photometry from space and high resolution spectroscopy from the ground, will provide accurate planetary structures as well as architectures and evolutionary stage – via asteroseismic analysis – of a large number of planetary systems. PLATO is planned for a launch in Dec 2026.
The workshop aims to gather the Italian community interested to prepare the exploitation of PLATO data, with the purpose to disseminate information on the status of the project and to bust ideas and collaborations to best exoplit the data when they arrive.
More information here: https://indico.ict.inaf.it/event/2483/.