📅 21 to 26 february, 2027
📍 The Camp, Aix-en-Provence (France)
Save the date for the 1st PLATO School !
There is now a few months to go until the launch of the PLATO mission, which will mark the beginning of a new era for both exoplanetary and stellar science. The high-precision photometric data provided by the telescopes will allow for the detection and characterisation of extrasolar planets, through the transit method, focusing on small planets orbiting solar-like stars. PLATO will also enable the full characterisation of an unprecedented number of nearby stars, including seismic inference and measurements of stellar activity. Coupled with ground-based spectroscopic constraints, this will not only enable to determine stellar ages, masses and radii with unprecedented precision, and therefore much needed constraints for both exoplanetary system evolution or galactic archaeology, but also allow to answer decades-old puzzles related to stellar internal structure and evolution. Eventually, it will give us a large-scale catalogue of well-characterised exoplanets, thus providing answers to long-standing questions related to planetary formation and evolution.
In order to prepare new generations of astrophysicists for this very exciting era, we are organising the first PLATO School, From PLATO pixels to sizing & dating stars and planets, in Aix-en-Provence, February 22 to 26, 2027. The school is intended for students or early-career researchers interested in any area of astrophysics that will benefit from the space photometry provided by PLATO. Through a series of lectures and hands-on tutorials animated by scientists involved in the preparation of the PLATO mission, you will be given the opportunity to understand PLATO products, familiarise yourself with the data analysis techniques and theoretical concepts that are central to the success of the mission, while also getting the chance to exchange and network with the scientific community. Whether PLATO data will be central to your research, or whether you are simply interested in expanding your horizon beyond your primary research focus, please book the date.
We will come back with more news soon !