Seminars at FGG
The Ariel Space Mission
Speaker: Emanuele Pace (Universita' degli Studi di Firenze (Italy))
Date and time: 2023-05-10 12:00
Ariel (Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large Survey) is the adopted M4 mission in the framework of the ESA “Cosmic Vision” program. Its purpose is to survey the atmospheres of known exoplanets through transit spectroscopy. The launch is scheduled for 2029. The Ariel scientific payload consists of an off-axis, unobscured Cassegrain telescope feeding a set of photometers and spectrometers in the waveband between 0.5 and 7.8 µm and operating at cryogenic temperatures (55 K). The Telescope Assembly is based on an innovative full-aluminium design to tolerate thermal variations and avoid impacts on the optical performance; it consists of a primary parabolic mirror with an elliptical aperture of 1.1 m, followed by a hyperbolic secondary that is mounted on a refocusing system, a parabolic re-collimating tertiary and a flat folding mirror directing the output beam parallel to the optical bench. This seminar will introduce Ariel's scientific objectives and describe the Ariel payload focusing on the Italian contribution to the mission.