ARIEL mission to reveal 'Brave New Worlds' among exoplanets
An ambitious European mission is being planned to answer fundamental questions about how planetary systems form and evolve. ARIEL will investigate the atmospheres of several hundred planets orbiting distant stars. It is one of three candidate missions selected last month by the European Space Agency (ESA) for its next medium class science mission, due for launch in 2026. The ARIEL mission concept has been developed by a consortium of more than 50 institutes from 12 countries, including UK, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Ireland and Portugal. The mission will be presented today at the Pathways 2015 conference in Bern, Switzerland, by ARIEL's Principal Investigator, Prof Giovanna Tinetti of University College London.