News & Events from PLATO 2.0
See the Calendar for upcoming events
Organisation charts updated
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.
Good Vibrations Seminar Series launched
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 ESP 2020 - Planetary interiors and system architectures
The topic of the workshop this year is "Planetary interiors and system architectures". The aims of the workshop are to discuss how PLATO may help to understand planetary interiors and give new and more precise constraints on them, and to identify which open issues of planetary system architecture could be solved by PLATO's future measurements. We will also discuss what was learned from earlier (CoRoT, Kepler/K2, TESS, and ground-based measurements) related to system architectures and how the observations are confronted by theory.
PLATO Week 10 final details
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.
COVID-19: a message from the PLATO Consortium Lead
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.
PMC-Internal L2/L3 RR successfully concludes
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.
PMC-Internal L2/L3 RR kicks-off
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.
PLATO STESCI III
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
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 announcement
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.
Successful conclusion of Payload PDR
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.
New PLATO mission consortium website
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.
PLATO STESCI WORKSHOP II
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.
ATBD review ongoing
The PSM review of the onboard data processing algorithms continues.
Following the delivery of the final reports to the PDC Office and the Performance Team, the PSM Office have been working with those groups to address the action items arising from the reports. Several of these have now been closed, but there are some outstanding issues that urgently need attention. Of these, the most important is the question of scientific testing to show that the algorithms fulfil the mission's science requirements.
The PSM Office circulated an email update regarding this question, with information about how PSM members can contribute to this effort. Please get in touch via email if you have not received this.
Information, and a list of next steps, is available on the Reviews page of the Members-only area (click the title of this news item)
Website updates
Myriad updates have been made to the website over the last week. These include updates to the PSM members-only area; please click the title of this item for more details.
PLATO Week 4 and PLATO Week 5 reports
Brief reports for PLATO Week 4 (Summer 2017) and PLATO Week 5 (Autumn 2017) are now available through the Meetings page. Both PLATO Weeks included a large number of sessions that were relevant to the PSM.
The presentations from these meetings are available from the PLATO Sharepoint (sign-in required). Those relevant to the PSM will be made available through the Meeting Documents page (PSM members only, sign-in required).
New WP120 Stellar Science website is live
WP120, the Core Stellar Science branch of the PSM has a new website. Please check it out at this link (https://plato-stesci.lesia.obspm.fr/).
10th DPA-WG meeting
The 10th meeting of the DPA-WG is taking place on October 11th and 12th, at Observatoire de Paris. Attendance is by invitation only.
PLATO Week 5 - Porto
The Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA), Universidade do Porto, Portugal will organise the fifth PLATO Week that is scheduled from 24/10/2017 to 26/10/2017. For questions concerning the local organisation please contact pw05@iastro.pt. Please note that attendance is by invitation only.
For more information, please see the meeting website.
PLATO adopted by ESA
ESA's Science Programme Committee have agreed to adopt PLATO into the Science Programme moving forwards. Mission adoption is a big milestone for PLATO, and marks the move from a blueprint mission into a fully-realised concern.
This decision is just reward for all of the hard work put in by the PLATO team over the last several years.