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The European Space Agency has selected Thales Alenia Space to carry out one of the three phase B1 studies for the Planetary Transits and Oscillation of stars (PLATO) programme.

As part of the study, the mission, system and subsystem requirements will be consolidated, including the satellite configuration and operational characteristics, analyses and assessment of scientific performance.

Thales Alenia Space Italia will conduct the phase study of the project, while Thales Alenia Space France will provide the payload definition.

Scheduled for launch in 2024, the PLATO mission is designed to study thousands of exoplanetary systems to characterise Earth-sized planets and super-Earths in the habitable zone of their parent star.

The programme will also determine the age, mass and dimensions of the stars near Earth, to evaluate regular changes in brightness that indicate the presence of planets.

"Its discoveries will help to place our own Solar System’s architecture in the context of other planetary systems"

The PLATO mission will use 34 small telescopes, to search for planets around up to a million stars.

ESA science and robotic exploration director Alvaro Giménez earlier said: "PLATO, with its unique ability to hunt for Sun-Earth analogue systems, will build on the expertise accumulated with a number of European missions, including CoRot and Cheops.

"Its discoveries will help to place our own Solar System’s architecture in the context of other planetary systems."

Data from the PLATO mission is said to help assess the mass, radius, density, bulk composition and distance of the planets from their sun and support the ongoing search for worlds potentially similar to our own.

In February last year, the ESA’s science programme committee has selected PLATO as a space-based observatory to search for planets orbiting alien stars, as part of the agency’s Cosmic Vision 2015 – 25 programme.

Image: The PLATO mission is designed to study thousands of exoplanetary systems to characterise Earth-sized planets and super-Earths. Photo: courtesy of Thales Alenia Space.