There have been some recent udpates to the organisation charts of the PSM (click the title of this item for more details). The latest versions are now visible on the appropriate research area pages, and are available for download from the PSM Organisation Charts pageLink opens in a new window.

The PLATO Mission Conference 2021: Exploring exoplanets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars will be held from 11 to 15 October 2021 as an online event. This conference aims to present the status of the PLATO mission to the community, both in terms of satellite development and scientific preparation, and to bring together experts working on observations and theory associated with any of the PLATO science objectives.

The major themes of the Conference are:

• PLATO development status
• Selection of the PLATO sky fields and the PLATO Input Catalogue
• Light-curve analysis for detection and characterisation of long-period small planets
• Asteroseismology and stellar characterisation
• Advances in modelling stellar internal structure and evolution
• Stellar activity
• Ground-based observations for the confirmation and mass determination of planets
• Long-period small planets and habitability
• Planetary structure, composition, evolution, and architecture of planetary systems
• PLATO in the context of Kepler/K2, TESS, CHEOPS, JWST, Roman Space Telescope, Ariel, and large ground-based observatories
• Complementary science topics benefitting from PLATO high-precision photometry

For further information please visit the Conference Website.

With most international conferences being cancelled, we’re facing some issues:

• How can we make our PhD students known for their work?
• How can they start new collaborations, independently of their supervisors?
• How can they advertise for their papers?

So here’s the idea: what if we create a series of invited seminars, given by young researchers, dedicated to Asteroseismology? We are happy to announce that the Good Vibrations Seminar Series is up and running. You can read about the initiative on the website.

Call for applications

The steering committee is welcoming applications from PhD students in Asteroseismology. The procedure is simple and can be found here: Apply!

In order to perform the selection and distribute the seminars in time, it is important that students declare their interest in advance (i.e. before the end of 2020); the title and abstract can be preliminary at this stage.

Please note that priority will be given to students who finish their PhD in 2021. The steering committee will aim to ensure appropriate diversity of both seminar topics and speakers.

If you want to include your group in the initiative, you are most welcome to join. If you have any further questions, please get in touch with the steering committee.

PLATO Week 10 will now be held remotely from the 26th to 28th of May 2020.

PW10 is being organised by the Konkoly Observatory of the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences and the PMC.
Owing to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the decision has been made to move the meeting online; the conference will be conducted using WebEx (access provided by ESA).

The schedule for the meeting has been updated following this change. Please go to the PLATO Week 10 website for more details. A detailed agenda for the meeting will be available nearer the time.

Heike Rauer, PLATO Consortium Lead, today circulated a message to all PMC members regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. You can see the full message by clicking on the title of this news item.

At the PSM Office, we echo Heike's message, and hope that everyone stays safe and well during this period of uncertainty.

The first major review of PSM activity, the L2/L3 Requirements Review, was closed-out on the 9th of March 2020.

This internal review, which was run completely by the PLATO Mission Consortium, assessed the requirements for the L2 & L3 data processing pipelines, the systems that take PLATO light curves and identify planetary candidates, confirm planetary systems, and derive stellar properties.

Although a large number of action items remain to be completed, this review is considered a success by all involved. Thank you to everyone who took part, in any capacity.

PLATO Week 10 will be taking place from the 26th to the 28th May 2020, and will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

As usual, the meeting will be preceded by an ESA progress meeting (invitation only).

More details are available on the PW10 website.

The first major review of PSM activity, the L2/L3 Requirements Review, successfully kicked-off on Friday 29th November. This internal review, which is run completely by the PLATO Mission Consortium and has only limited input from ESA, is assessing the requirements for the L2 & L3 data processing pipelines, the systems that take PLATO light curves and identify planetary candidates, confirm planetary systems, and derive stellar properties.

The initial phase of the review concludes on the 20th of December, and the review runs until the end of February 2020.

The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Göttingen, Germany, invites applications for a Database Software Developer to work for the PLATO Data Centre (PDC). The position is available for an initial period starting as soon as possible until 31st March 2022, with the possibility of an extension that is contingent upon performance and project funding.

Please send your CV and application letter in English (certificates and reference letters may be in German) as one PDF file to burston@mps.mpg.de with the subject line “PDC-DB-sciprog-20191113”. Applications will be reviewed from the 1st December 2019 until the position is filled.

For information, please click the title of this news item.

The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Göttingen, Germany, invites applications for a Database Software Developer to work for the PLATO Data Centre (PDC). The position is available for an initial period starting as soon as possible until 31st March 2022, with the possibility of an extension that is contingent upon performance and project funding.

Please send your CV and application letter in English (certificates and reference letters may be in German) as one PDF file to burston@mps.mpg.de with the subject line “PDC-DB-swdev-13112019”. Applications will be reviewed from the 1st December 2019 until the position is filled.

For information, please click the title of this news item.

WP12 (STESCI) are holding their third workshop in Barcelona, Spain, between 19th and 22nd November 2019.

STESCI currently includes over 100 researchers from 11 different countries, across Europe, North America, and South America. Its activities are spread over 53 sub-work packages, which tasks have been defined. However scientific issues remain to be debated in order to ensure optimized determination of stellar parameters with the accuracy required by the mission, yet unreached.

This workshop intend to gather STESCI members, with the aim of discussing and taking decisions about the best scientific options to derive stellar parameters with the uncertainties requested by the PLATO mission.

For more information, please see the workshop's website.

PLATO ESP2019, "Single, Shallow, and Strange transits", is being held at the University of Warwick, UK, between 2nd and 4th September 2019.

Following on from the first PLATO ESP workshop in Marseille in 2018, this workshop will discuss the photometric signatures produced by unusual transiting objects.

More information can be found at https://platoesp.org/, including a link to the registration form. Spaces are limited!

PLATO Week 9 will be taking place from the 9th to the 11th October 2019, and will be held in Marseille, France.

As usual, the meeting will be preceded by an ESA progress meeting (invitation only).

More details are available on the PW9 website.

The LESIA (http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/) is strongly committed to PLATO, both in terms of embedded software, the specification of on-board and on-ground processing algorithms, and the scientific preparation of the mission. As part of the mission development phase, one of the tasks to be carried out concerns the study and specification of all on-ground algorithms. These specifications are indeed essential to begin with the development of the on-ground data processing chains. This work is conducted under the responsibility of the LESIA (respectively R. Samadi) in the framework of WP 32 (a component of the Plato Data Center, PDC). It involves many collaborators in close contact with the team responsible for the development of the on-ground software at the Max Planck Institute in Gottingen (Germany).

At this stage of the project, the main components of the on-ground data processing chains are identified. However, the corresponding algorithms have to be studied in detail and complete evaluations of the expected performances have to be made. Finally, it will be necessary to translate the algorithms, currently in the form of detailed specifications, into a set of documents on the basis of which the PLATO Data Center (PDC) team will then develop the codes and perform the validation and integration tests.

The first batch of charge-coupled devices (CCDs) to be flown on ESA’s PLATO space observatory was accepted by ESA last month. This is an important milestone on the road to creating a groundbreaking spacecraft that will detect Earth-sized exoplanets in orbit around distant stars.

The CCDs will be a key element of the largest digital combined camera ever flown in space. This camera will receive light from 26 telescopes, all mounted on a single satellite platform. The first 20 CCDs for PLATO were accepted for delivery by ESA in mid-March, and the remaining 84 detectors will be delivered in further batches before the end of 2020.

“The delivery of the first detectors at this time is important because it secures the early availability of one of the key elements of the whole mission,” said Bengt Johlander, the PLATO Payload Manager for ESA.

For more details, see ESA's press release: http://sci.esa.int/plato/61280-delivery-of-first-detectors-for-platos-exoplanet-mission

On March 27th a successful close-out meeting for the Payload Preliminary Design Review (P/L-PDR) was held at ESTEC, with ESA certifying that PLATO has achieved all the criteria necessary to pass the review.

The PMC leadership would like to thank the whole team for the enormous effort they made. It was only possible to reach this important milestone thanks to the consistently high motivation and desire to succeed that is present at all levels of the consortium.

In 2021 we will have the Payload Critical Design Review (P/L-CDR) and with the Camera Series Production Readiness milestone to deal with. Before that, however, we must complete the ongoing Unit PDRs.

The PLATO mission consortium has a new website - https://platomission.com/

The new website provides an overview of the PLATO mission, information about the different groups involved, science goals and requirements, development work, mission timeline, etc.

For general information about PLATO, please use the new website. PSM-specific news and updates will continue to be made available through this website.

OHB System AG, a subsidiary of Bremen-based space and technology group OHB SE has been selected as prime contractor for the science mission PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars (PLATO) by the European Space Agency (ESA).

During the development and the production of the PLATO satellite, OHB System will have access to the contribution of a core team consisting of Thales Alenia Space (France and UK) and RUAG Space (Switzerland)(source: OHB System AG).

The prime selection together with the upcoming Instrument Preliminary Design Review (IPDR) are important milestones towards the completion of the development phase and the start of the implementation phase next year.

WP12 (STESCI) are holding their second workshop in Messina, Sicily, Italy, between 22nd and 25th May 2018.

The first part of the workshop will consist of presentations which will review the scientific issues and related tasks achieved since the previous workshop (held in Paris in May 2016). Decisions on chosen scientific options will then be made, and approved.

In the second part of the workshop, scientific presentations and discussions will take place about issues that still remain to be clarified and solved. Related actions, and scientific work to be done, will be decided.

Places are limited; for more information, please see the workshop's website.