Topics Covered: Awareness in space.
What is the Ariel Space Mission adopted by the European Space Agency?
Context:
The European Space Agency (ESA) has formally adopted Ariel.
What is Ariel?
Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey) will be launched in 2029.
- It will perform a large-scale survey of over a thousand exoplanets over a period of four years.
- The explorer that will study the nature, formation and evolution of exoplanets.
Significance:
Ariel is the first mission of its kind dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of exoplanets.
It will also help to answer one of the key questions of ESA’s Cosmic Vision Plan, which is, “What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life?”.
How exoplanets are found?
As per NASA, only a handful of exoplanets have been found using telescopes and the rest have been detected using indirect methods. These include:
- Tracking the dimming of a star that happens when a planet passes in front of it. NASA’s Kepler Space telescope uses this method to spot thousands of planets.
- Gravitational lensing and the “wobbling method”, which is based on the idea that an orbiting planet will cause its parent star to orbit slightly off-centre.
Why study exoplanets?
The search for exoplanets is driven by the possibility that life may exist beyond Earth and even if there is no evidence for this, scientists believe that their hunt for an answer will reveal details about where humans came from and where we’re headed.
Key Points:
- As of now the existence of more than 4,000 exoplanets is considered confirmed, while there are thousands of other candidate exoplanets that need further observations to say for certain if they are exoplanets.
- Proxima Centauri b is the closest exoplanet to Earth and is four light-years away and inhabits the “habitable zone” of its star, which means that it could possibly have liquid water on its surface.
InstaLinks:
Prelims Link:
- Key features and significance of the mission.
- What are exoplanets?
- What is habitable zone? How is it identified?
- About Proxima Centauri b.
- Overview of Gravitational lensing and the “wobbling method”.
- About NASA’s Kepler Space telescope.
Sources: Indian Express.
