00:00 Hi, you are watching InDeath with me Ila.
00:03 The European Space Agency is preparing to launch a new mission to find more exoplanets
00:07 in the universe.
00:09 The name of the scheduled mission is PLATO that will be launched in 2026.
00:14 PLATO mission stands for Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars, and it will scour
00:19 for thousands of Earth-like planets, including some with favorable orbits around sun-like
00:23 stars.
00:24 ESA's Next Generation Planet Hunting mission could be the most successful one ever built.
00:30 PLATO will look for more than 2,45,000 F, G, and K-type stars.
00:36 A recent study has pointed out that the mission, depending on several parameters, could identify
00:41 a minimum of 500 Earth-sized planets.
00:44 Of these, at least a dozen could orbit G-type or sun-like stars.
00:49 Let's understand exoplanets first.
00:52 These are planets that orbit other stars and are beyond our solar system.
00:56 The first confirmation of detection of exoplanets occurred in 1992.
01:01 According to NASA, to date, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered.
01:07 Scientists believe that there are more planets than stars as each star have at least one
01:11 planet orbiting it.
01:13 Exoplanets come in a host of different sizes.
01:16 They can be gas giants bigger than Jupiter or as small and rocky as Earth.
01:22 Exoplanets are very hard to see directly with telescopes.
01:25 They are hidden by the bright glare of the stars they orbit.
01:28 So, astronomers use other ways to detect and study exoplanets such as looking at the effects
01:33 these planets have on the stars they orbit.
01:36 They also rely on indirect methods, such as the transit method, which is measuring the
01:41 dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it.
01:45 Other detection methods include gravitational microlensing.
01:48 In microlensing, light from a distant star is bent and focused by gravity as a planet
01:53 passes between the star and Earth.
01:56 Out of these two prevalent methods, PLATO will specifically use the transit method to
02:00 characterize potential Earth-like planets.
02:03 When the planet is in front of the star, it obscures an area on the stellar surface proportional
02:08 to the ratio of its size compared to that of the star.
02:11 In other words, once the star's size is known, scientists can directly measure the
02:16 exoplanet's size as well.
02:19 Water is among the many clues that astronomers will be looking out for.
02:23 It is essential for life on Earth and finding exoplanets with water will help narrow the
02:27 search for worlds that could be potentially habitable.
02:30 The discovery of exoplanets has played an integral role in shaping our current planetary
02:35 models.
02:36 That understanding could be enhanced further as we find more alien worlds.
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