PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) PLATO Fr.: PLATO A space observatory under development by the → European Space Agency for launch around 2024. Its objective is to detect and characterize → exoplanets by means of their → transit signature in front of a very large sample of → bright stars, and measure the seismic oscillations (→ asteroseismology) of the parent stars orbited by these planets in order to understand the properties of the exoplanetary systems. See also: → planetary; → transit; → oscillation; → star. |