CHEOPS Science

CHEOPS – CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite – the ESA’s first small mission dedicated to searching for exoplanetary transits by performing ultrahigh precision photometry on bright stars already known to host planets. CHEOPS will provide the unique capability of determining radii within ~10% accuracy for a subset of those planets, in the super-Earth to Neptune mass range, for which the mass has already been estimated using ground-based spectroscopic surveys. CHEOPS will also provide accurate radii for new planets discovered by the next generation of ground-based or space transits surveys (from super-Earth to Neptunesize). By unveiling transiting exoplanets with high potential for in-depth characterization, CHEOPS will provide suitable targets for future instruments suited to the spectroscopic characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres.