CHEOPS is the new planet hunter launched by the European space agency, ESA, which is financed by the countries of the European Union with a rather generous budget every year. This budget brings to the whole world a new space telescope that has the purpose of searching for distant planets from the universe in which we live, it has the name CHEOPS and is currently in orbit above the Earth, in full operation.
CHEOPS reaches Earth's orbit to search together with TESS, a similar space telescope launched by NASA, for exoplanets, i.e. planets that are outside our solar system. Both ESA and NASA want to discover as many of the secrets of the universe as possible, and space telescopes like CHEOPS are just one of the steps that had to be taken to detect more celestial bodies that are far from our planet.
CHEOPS is the new Planet Hunter Launched by the European Union
CHEOPS is going to take the process of searching for exoplanets through the universe "to a whole new level", or at least that's what ESA promises, but all after several thousand such planets have already been discovered by TESS. The interesting part is that CHEOPS will be able to do something different, that is, it will be able to investigate including the physical and chemical characteristics of exoplanets, and this will also reveal more essential information about them.
"Cheops will take exoplanet science to a whole new level. After the discovery of thousands of planets, the search can now turn to characterization, investigating the physical and chemical properties of many exoplanets, and to truly know what they are made of and how they formed."
CHEOPS will also allow you to determine the sizes of the planets, and this by analyzing the amount of light they block in relation to the stars they are positioned in front of. Basically, CHEOPS is thought to be even better and more powerful than TESS, which should help ESA to discover more of the secrets of the universe, compared to what NASA has done, but of course the process will be quite complicated.
CHEOPS has been launched, is in operation, and all that remains is to see what will be revealed about this new telescope that is meant to bring the universe closer.
