Ariel moves from blueprint to reality

ESA’s exoplanet mission Ariel, scheduled for launch in 2029, has moved from study to implementation phase. Ravit Helled is co-leading one of the Ariel working groups.
Ariel, the Atmospheric remote-sensing infrared exoplanet large-survey mission, addresses one of the key themes of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme: What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life? Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of around 1000 planetary atmospheres simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths.
It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of exoplanets, linking them to the host star’s environment. This will fill a significant gap in our knowledge of how the planet’s chemistry is linked to the environment where it formed, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s evolution.
Observations of these worlds will give insights into the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation, and their subsequent evolution, in the process also helping us to understand how our own Solar System fits into the bigger picture of the overall cosmos.
Ariel was selected in 2018 as the fourth medium-class science mission in ESA’s Cosmic Vision plan. It was ‘adopted’ by ESA during the Agency’s Science Programme Committee meeting on 12 November, paving the way towards construction. “Ariel will enable planetary science far beyond the boundaries of our own Solar System,” says Günther Hasinger, ESA’s Director of Science. “The adoption of Ariel cements ESA’s commitment to exoplanet research and will ensure European astronomers are at the forefront of this revolutionary field for the next decade and well beyond.”
Ariel: ESA's third exoplanet mission
Ariel will be ESA’s third dedicated exoplanet mission to launch within a ten-year period, with each mission tackling a unique aspect of exoplanet science. Cheops, the CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite, launched in December 2019, is already producing world-class science. Plato, the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars mission, will be launched in the 2026 timeframe to find and study extrasolar planetary systems, with a special emphasis on rocky planets around Sun-like stars in the habitable zone – the distance from a star where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface. Ariel, planned to launch in 2029, will focus on warm and hot planets, ranging from super-Earths to gas giants orbiting close to their parent stars, taking advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres to decipher their bulk composition.
In the coming months, industry will be asked to make bids to supply spacecraft hardware for Ariel. Around summer next year, the prime industrial contractor will be selected to build it. The mission’s payload module, which includes a one metre-class cryogenic telescope and associated science instruments, is provided by the Ariel Mission Consortium. The consortium comprises more than 50 institutes from 17 European countries. NASA also contributes to the payload.
“After an intensive period working on the preliminary design concepts and on the consolidation of the required technologies to demonstrate the mission feasibility, we are ready to move Ariel forward to the implementation stage,” says ESA’s Ariel study manager Ludovic Puig.
What Ariel is looking for
-
- Ariel will be placed in orbit around the Lagrange Point 2 (L2), a gravitational balance point 1.5 million kilometres beyond the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Image Credit: ESA/STFC RAL Space/UCL/Europlanet-Science Office
The telescope’s spectrometers will measure the chemical fingerprints of a planet as it crosses in front of – ‘transits’ – its host star, or passes behind it – an ‘occultation’. The measurements will also enable astronomers to observe the dimming of the host star by the planet with a precision of 10–100 parts per million relative to the star.
Ariel will be able to detect signs of well-known ingredients in the planets’ atmospheres such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane. It will also detect more exotic metallic compounds to decipher the overall chemical environment of the distant solar system. For a select number of planets, Ariel will also perform a deep survey of their cloud systems and study seasonal and daily atmospheric variations.
“With Ariel we will take exoplanet characterisation to the next level by studying these distant worlds both as individuals and, importantly, as populations, in much greater detail than ever before possible,” says ESA’s Ariel study scientist Göran Pilbratt.
“Our chemical census of hundreds of solar systems will help us understand each planet in context of the chemical environment and composition of the host star, in turn helping us to better understand our own cosmic neighbourhood,” adds ESA’s Ariel project scientist Theresa Lueftinger.
“We’re pleased to enter the implementation phase of the Ariel mission,” says ESA’s Ariel project manager Jean-Christophe Salvignol. “We’re moving towards the optimal spacecraft design for answering fundamental questions about our place in the cosmos.”
Ariel is planned for launch on ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. It will operate from an orbit around the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, L2, 1.5 million kilometres directly ‘behind’ Earth as viewed from the Sun, on an initial four-year mission. The ESA-led Comet Interceptor mission will share the ride into space.
Ravit Helled on her role in the Ariel ESA mission
Prof. Ravit Helled from the Institute for Computational Science, Center for Theoretical Astrophysics & Cosmology is part of the consortium of the recently adopted Ariel ESA mission. She is co-leading the "Interiors" working group of the mission which aims at characterizing the planets to be observed by the Ariel mission. She is also part of the "Formation" working group which aims at understanding the formation and evolution of planets around other stars. Helled says: "Understanding the link between the bulk composition and atmospheric composition of planets and how they are linked to planetary origin is a key topic in planetary and exo-planetary science and we focus on these questions. Also, determining the atmospheric composition of planets, as will be measured by Ariel, is critical for constraining the planetary bulk
composition, which can then be linked to its formation process and planetary evolution. I think it is great that we have a Swiss representation in such an important ESA mission. I am excited to be part of the Ariel ESA mission and I look forward to the excellent science and collaborations. "
More news
- SwissCollNet supports the scientific collections of the UZH on a large scale
- New: Zoological Museum offers guided tours in Ukrainian
- Science and Operations Service team up for a clean Irchelpark
- Cooperation by necessity – female house mice breed communally to improve their chance to reproduce
- Physicist Laura Baudis honored with Charpak Ritz Prize 2022
- Minor Days 2022
- Gravitational waves become tangible
- Successfull Science Info Day 2022
- FDFA International Career Day
- Scientists discover how galaxies can exist without dark matter
- Green Labs Group wins SCNAT UChange Program Grant
- Cyber-Defence Fellowships – A Talent Program for Cyber-Defence Research
- The Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literatures admits Laura Baudis as member
- Particle physicist Florencia Canelli will represent Switzerland on the CERN Council from 2022 onwards
- Ecologist Jordi Bascompte honored with Margalef award 2021
- ETH honors MNF chemist Fabian von Rohr with Ruzicka Prize 2021
- Recruiting and evaluating without bias: MNF launches awareness campaign
- New Master programm: Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences
- New@MNF: Theoretical particle physicist Peter Stoffer
- From Epicurus, Bioinspired Machine Learning and Happiness - Visiting Professor Eleni Vasilaki
- #New@MNF - Prof. Tina Perica
- Corinna Ulcigrai: Invited Speaker at the ICM 2022
- Covid certificate required for freshers day
- Covid Certificates Required for On-Site Classes
- UZI 5: New research building on the Irchel campus inaugurated
- DQBM Founding Symposium
- Sandra Luber honored with Coblentz Award 2021
- Cyber-Defence Fellowships – A Talent Program for Cyber-Defence Research
- Coming soon: Test flights for biodiversiy research
- Science and Nature Festival on Campus Irchel: May 22 to May 30
- Simran Tinan: First UZH PhD student to receive a CYD Fellowship.
- How does the environment impact our wellbeing?
- Theoretical Physicist Thomas Gehrmann honored with ERC Advanced Grant
- Meerkats from Campus Irchel as TV stars
- Earth System Science: Permafrost is thawing globally
- Minor Days 2021
- New Results Challenge Leading Theory in Physics
- Scientific Programming with Python 2021
- Cristina Nevado choosen for the "Dr. Margaret Faul Women in Chemistry Award 2021"
- The Python code WannierBerri developed by Stepan Tsirkin breaks the records of speed in evaluation of anomalous transport in solids.
- Go-ahead for SKA - the biggest radiotelescope on Earth
- Machine Learning kompakt: New e-book gives a compact introduction into machine learning.
- Sustainability Committee Grant: Make Irchel more sustainable
- GERDA final results: Another milestone in the search for neutrinoless double-beta decay
- Astrophysics: How nearby galaxies form their stars
- Kai Niebert appointed as member of the German Bioeconomy Council
- Undergraduate Project "Plant Immunity Based Biosensing" recognized as Best Undergrad New Application Project
- At the Limits of What’s Possible
- Highly cited researchers: Clarivate publishes 2020 list of most influential researchers
- How giant planets turn gas to metal
- Bernhard Schmid was elected this year's Eminent Ecologist by the Journal of Ecology. At the same time the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland GfÖ awarded him the honorary medal.
- Christian Berndt has been awarded an honorary professorship at University of Nottingham
- The student garden at UZH is really up and running
- Rüdiger Wehner has been awarded Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation, London
- Drone flights between USZ and Campus Irchel
- Stefan Sauter has been elected as Member of the European Academy of Sciences
- Starting next Fall Semester: Minor Study Program in BioMed Entrepreneurship
- Observation of Excess Events in the XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment
- Ancient Andes Analyzed: Genomic Portrait of Pre-Columbian Andean Civilizations
- COVID-19: Basic Safety Concept and Fact Sheet on conduct on UZH premises Faculty of Science (MNF)
- Hanna Kokko new member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Faculty of Science awards the title of honorary doctor to Jane Goodall
- ABCD: How to make scientific conferences more sustainable and divers
- Mathematician Corinna Ulcigrai honored with Brin Prize
- Karl Gademann honored as Chemistry Europe Fellow
- Information on the corona virus
- Science Info Day: UZH's Study Progams in Natural Sciences and Mathematics
- Mathematician Camillo De Lellis honored with Bôcher Memorial Prize 2020
- Physicist Titus Neupert honored with Klung-Wilhemy Award
- Rapid evolutionary change in a grassland biodiversity experiment
- Closing in on elusive particles
- Astrophysicist Lucio Mayer elected as board member of the MERAC Foundation
- UZH Entrepreneur Fellowships in BioTech & MedTech
- Büroccoli and Strebergärtli – student’s garden projects @UZH Science Campus Irchel
- Irchel Nature Trail has opened
- Mathematician Artur Avila elected as Member by NAS
- Chemist Cristina Nevado receives Organometallic Chemistry Award by Royal Society of Chemistry
- Thermodynamic Magic Enables Cooling without Energy Consumption
- Biochemist Ben Schuler receives HFSP Research Grant
- Mathematician Xavier Ros-Oton honored with Spanish Scientific Research Award
- Award 3.0 : Theoretical Chemist Luber receives Open Eye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
- Another Award for Sandra Luber
- ERC-Research Funds for Physicist Gino Isidori and Mathematician Benjamin Schlein
- Irchel Nature Trail - Grand Opening on 22 May 2019
- American Physical Society Honors Titus Neupert as Outstanding Referee for 2019
- Theoretical Chemist Sandra Luber honored with Block Prize
- Science Info Day 2019: Information Event for Future Students
- March 14th, 2019. Y 15 G 19 Irchel, 17:00
- MNF-Professor Kentaro Shimizu one of the 50 Japanese who move the world
- Honoris causa: Universidad del Norte appoints Mathematician Joachim Rosenthal as Honorary Professor
- FameLab 2019: Get ready for the challenge
- Nuclearia is protist of the year 2019 declares DGP
- Sandra Luber honored with Carl-Duisberg-Gedächtnispreis
- Chris Marentini honored with Dectris-Award for best Master Thesis in experimental physics
- Michael Baudis elected to GA4GH steering committee and as chair of Bioinformatics and Data Analytics group of SPHN
- Miescher Award 2019 goes to Bernd Bodenmiller
- Bascompte, Bolch, Martinoia, van der Heijden, von Mering and Zipfel are Highly Cited Researchers 2018
- ERC Synergy Grant for biochemists Andreas Plückthun and Ohad Medalia
- ERC Consolidator Grants 2018: Melanie Greter and Martin Jinek receive prestigious grants
- Flows of carbon between ecosystems underestimated
- Genesis 2.0 - discussing the movie
- 27.11.2018: Welcome event Gruezi@UZH for Science and Medicine
- Formation of mysterious structures within the Antarctic and Greenlandic Ice Sheet explained
- Biodiversity: Does the dispersion of species always follow the same rules?
- Zukunftstag for #Kids: Some openings are still available
- Café Scientifique: Davide Scaramuzza on "Autonomous, Agile, Vision-controlled drones"
- Greta Patzke appointed scientific counselor of AEE Suisse.
- From first cells to first heartbeat: visualizing heart development
- Call for UZH Entrepreneur-Fellowship BioTech and MedTech
- Florian Altermatt appointed Associate Professor for Aquatic Ecology
- Slow or fast? Soil moisture as a critical limitation of vegetation development in a warming tundra.
- Morning gene activity in the field but not in the laboratories
- No evidence of 'hobbit' ancestry in genomes of Flores Island pygmies
- Fields Medal Winner Artur Avila Appointed Full Professor at UZH
- #NewProfessor: Francesca Peri - master of thousands of zebrafish
- Resurrecting Darwin’s Bulldog-Faced Argentinian Cow
- Novel Insulators with Conducting Edges
- Higgs boson reaches the top
- The Nagoya Protocol — a possible obstacle to research cooperation
- XENON1T probes deeper into Dark Matter WIMPs, with 1300 kg of cold Xe atoms
- Cyril Zipfel honored with the Tsuneko & Reiji Okazaki Award
- Cyril Zipfel elected as EMBO member
- Werner Prize 2018 awarded to Sandra Luber
- MNF-PhD Student awarded with British Ecological Society's Southwood Prize
- UZH Days of the laboratory animals: 20. und 23. April
- Minor Days 2018: Die Nebenfachangebote der MNF
- New Method Speeds Up Development of Medication
- Make Irchel Greener - submit your ideas
- Call for PSC Summer School: Responsible Research and Innovation in Plant Sciences
- From the laboratory to bedside
- LISA mission passes review successfully and begins next stage of development
- Jason Holland receives Grant by Schweizer Krebsliga
- Science Alumni launch mentoring-progamm for MNF-students
- 2017: Our successfull students
- Sara Fabrikant and former PhD Student Marco Salvini win Breheny Prize
- Sandra Luber wins Robin Hochstrasser Young Investigator Award
- Peter Hamm elected as Fellow Member by OSA
- Magdalini Polymenidou becomes EMBO Young Investigator
- Gender Equality Event: Where are all the women?
- Welcome event Grüezi@UZH for Medicine and Science
- Lecture "Lehrperson 2020: Human Error oder Win-Win?"
- Exhibition: André Dreiding and his Molecular Models
- Nationaler Zukunftstag: Kids on Compus Irchel
- SNSF-Professor Sandra Luber honored with Hellmann-Award
- Sandra Luber and the modelling of future energy supply
- The good, the bad and their equilibrium: New insight in protein aggregation in neurons and new possible pathways for medical treatment
- Kosmische Teilchen: Lesen von unsichtbaren Schriften
- Talk: Gender Equality in Universities - the problems and solutions
- Florian Altermatt appointed Vice-President of Biodiversity Forum
- Counting women: The challenges of being a female mathematician
- Minor Days 2017: Die Nebenfachprogramme der MNF
- LHCb adds a new piece to developing puzzle in particle physics.
- European Girl's Mathematical Olympiad 2017
- Plant Science Center Summer School: Call for Registration
- Show me Science! Call for Participation für die ScienceComm'17
- Zurich-Basel Plant Science Center Symposium: "Public Engagement with Science - Relevance and Methods"
- Ice Age identified as one of the main killing mechanism for the biggest mass extinction
- Ready to challenge the frontiers of Particle Physics
- Beat Keller was honored with the IWGSC Award
- First glimpse on a single protein - the original idea of holography is now reality
- Imaging spectroscopy Article Makes it to the Cover of Methods in Ecology and Evolution
- Jason Holland appointed to two editorial boards
- 3D vision for machines
- Eri Yamasaki honored with Suzuki Award
- Department of Geography to become global center for biodiversity research
- Karl Gademann elected as member of SNSF's National Research Council
- Ecologist Jordi Bascompte honored with BES Marsh Book Award 2016
- 5 MNF-researchers among world’s most influential scientific minds.
- Assistant professor Madhavi Krishnan receives ERC Consolidator Grant
- Assistant professor Giacomo Indiveri receives ERC Consolidator Grant
- Republic of Sacha honors ecologist Dr. Gabriela Schaepman-Strub
- Swiss Bridge Foundation awards Dr. Alexa Burger and Prof. Christian Mosimann with 250'000 Swiss Franks
- Opening of the Student's Bar on Campus Irchel
- Women in Science: An evening of inspiration and advice on building a successful career in science
- Grüezi@Irchel
- Climate change and the capital market
- LS 2 Annual Meeting 2017
- Zukunftstag 2017: Kinder an den Campus Irchel
- 29. Oktober 2016: 10. Obstsortenmarkt im Botanischen Garten
- Podiumsdiskussion mit Klimaforscherin Gabriela Schaepman-Strub
- Public Talk: How universities can move societies to address sustainability - individual actions an global movements
- Public Lecture with Prof. Lawrence Krauss on Gravitational Waves and Turning Metaphysics into Physics
- Information Lunch: Personalized Health Alliance - Zurich Cluster
- Mathematician Laure Saint-Raymond joins Faculty as Hedi Fritz Niggli visiting professor
- Shanghai Ranking: UZH on position 54
- 3. September: Die lange Nacht der Zürcher Museen
- Prof. Kai Niebert met and discussed with Chancellor Angela Merkel
- #New Professor: Astrophysicist Ravit Helled joins Computational Science
- CERN and the Large Hadron Collider - News from the Energy Frontier
- Devis Tuia wins U.V. Helava award 2012 - 2015
- #NewProfessor @MNF: Titus Neupert
- Ein Wassertropfen als Modell für das Wechselspiel von Haftreibung und Adhäsion
- Felix Zelder gewinnt Auszeichnung der Royal Society of Chemistry
- Bundesrat zeichnet Geographin Karin Schwiter aus
- Promising treatment prospects for invasive breast cancer
- Vision 2020 - A Personal Perspective: Genetic Testing
- Denksport mit Prof. Anna Beliakova
- #NewProfessor @MNF: Jason Holland
- SummärBar auf dem Irchel: 17. Mai bis 2. Juni
- #New Professor @MNF: Marcello Porta
- High-performance microscope displays pores in the cell nucleus with greater precision
- International Physics Olympiad 2016