ARIEL mission to better understand exoplanet evolution gets green light

Oxford University are to play a key role in ARIEL, a new research mission to better understand the formation and evolution of exoplanets. Oxford University are to play a key role in ARIEL, a new research mission to better understand the formation and evolution of exoplanets. The project was chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) from three academic proposals, with the final selection announced today, 20 March 2018. The ARIEL mission is intended to answer fundamental questions about how planetary systems develop over time. Over the course of four years, the ARIEL spacecraft, will observe 1000 planets orbiting distant stars and marks the first large-scale survey of the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres. The instrument will have a meter-class mirror which will collect visible and infrared light from distant star systems. A spectrometer will spread this light into a 'rainbow' and extract the chemical fingerprints of gases in the planets' atmospheres.