CHEOPS – CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite

CHEOPS

CHEOPS is a European exoplanet mission with German involvement in both science and engineering. CHEOPS studies known planetary systems using ultra-high-precision photometry. The date enables researchers to determine the radii of the planets with great accuracy, describe their interior structure in greater detail and identify additional planets in the system.

CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is the first ESA S-class mission. It was launched in December 2019 and has been operating successfully ever since. Equipped with a 32 cm diameter telescope, CHEOPS investigates individual, already known extrasolar planetary systems. By measuring the brightness of stars with high-precision photometry, CHEOPS can determine the radii of planets whose mass has already been measured using ground-based spectroscopic observations and discover previously unknown planets.

A highly accurate radius measurement is the first step towards characterising the internal structure and thus gaining a better understanding of the formation and evolution processes of planets. Most of the objects observed by CHEOPS are super-Earths and mini-Neptunes; that is, planets with radii between 1.5 and 5 times that of Earth. From this group, the most promising targets could be selected for the investigation of potential atmospheres with future space missions.

The nominal mission of 3.5 years ended in 2023, but the mission has been extended until the end of 2026. The process for a further extension until 2029 is already underway. By February 2026, CHEOPS had orbited the Earth approximately 30,000 times and around 150 scientific articles had been published.

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Multimedia

Assembly of the telescope at University of Bern
The telescope was assembled at the University of Bern. The aperture is protected by a gold-metallic foil.
Image: 1/2, Credit:

University of Bern, Thomas Beck

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The completed satellite CHEOPS in the clean room of Airbus in Madrid before shipment to Kourou
In July 2019, the final tests were carried out on the satellite. From there, CHEOPS was then transported to French Guiana, to the European spaceport in Kourou.
Image: 2/2, Credit:

ESA – S. Corvaja

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Background articles

CHEOPS Science Goals

CHEOPS – CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite was developed specially for characterizing already known exoplanets. Using the transit method, CHEOPS performs ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars that host exoplanets.

Discoveries made with CHEOPS

Overivew over important discoveries with CHEOPS

CHEOPS: Organisation and Background

CHEOPS is an ESA S-class mission that was selected in 2012 and is led by the University of Bern as the Principal Investigator (PI). In addition to Germany, ten other European countries are involved in this mission.

DLR’s contribution to CHEOPS

Overview of the contributions of the Institute of Space Research to the CHEOPS misison

Links

CHEOPS DLR web special

CHEOPS ESA web special

CHE­OPS web ­spe­ci­al of the University of Bern

Video from CHEOPS launch

Contact

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Gisbert Peter

Department Head
Institute of Space Research
Space Instruments
Rutherfordstraße 2, 12489 Berlin-Adlershof

Dr David Krutz

Head of Department Space Instruments
Institute of Space Research
Optical Sensors and Electronics
Rutherfordstraße 2, 12489 Berlin-Adlershof

Dr. Juan Cabrera Perez

Department Head
Institute of Space Research
Extrasolar Planets and Atmospheres
Rutherfordstr. 2, 12489 Berlin

Dr. Matthias Grott

Department Head
Institute of Space Research
Planetary Sensor Systems
Rutherfordstr. 2, 12489 Berlin