PMC Science Management » News & Events from PLATO 2.0

Organisation charts updated

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 23:50:00 GMT

There have been some recent udpates to the organisation charts of the PSM (click the title of this item for more details). The latest versions are now visible on the appropriate research area pages, and are available for download from the PSM Organisation Charts page.

PLATO Conference 2021: Exploring exoplanets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 09:18:00 GMT

The PLATO Mission Conference 2021: Exploring exoplanets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars will be held from 11 to 15 October 2021 as an online event. This conference aims to present the status of the PLATO mission to the community, both in terms of satellite development and scientific preparation, and to bring together experts working on observations and theory associated with any of the PLATO science objectives.

The major themes of the Conference are:

PLATO development status
Selection of the PLATO sky fields and the PLATO Input Catalogue
Light-curve analysis for detection and characterisation of long-period small planets
Asteroseismology and stellar characterisation
Advances in modelling stellar internal structure and evolution
Stellar activity
Ground-based observations for the confirmation and mass determination of planets
Long-period small planets and habitability
Planetary structure, composition, evolution, and architecture of planetary systems
PLATO in the context of Kepler/K2, TESS, CHEOPS, JWST, Roman Space Telescope, Ariel, and large ground-based observatories
Complementary science topics benefitting from PLATO high-precision photometry

For further information please visit the Conference Website.

Good Vibrations Seminar Series launched

Fri, 18 Dec 2020 17:42:29 GMT

With most international conferences being cancelled, we’re facing some issues:

How can we make our PhD students known for their work?
How can they start new collaborations, independently of their supervisors?
How can they advertise for their papers?

So here’s the idea: what if we create a series of invited seminars, given by young researchers, dedicated to Asteroseismology? We are happy to announce that the Good Vibrations Seminar Series is up and running. You can read about the initiative on the website.

Call for applications

The steering committee is welcoming applications from PhD students in Asteroseismology. The procedure is simple and can be found here: Apply!

In order to perform the selection and distribute the seminars in time, it is important that students declare their interest in advance (i.e. before the end of 2020); the title and abstract can be preliminary at this stage.

Please note that priority will be given to students who finish their PhD in 2021. The steering committee will aim to ensure appropriate diversity of both seminar topics and speakers.

If you want to include your group in the initiative, you are most welcome to join. If you have any further questions, please get in touch with the steering committee.

PLATO ESP 2020 - Planetary interiors and system architectures

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 17:14:00 GMT

This is the first announcement of the PLATO Extra-Solar Planets 2020 (ESP2020) workshop, to be held virtually between 30th November - 3rd December 2020. (The original place was Berlin, Germany, but due to the known pandemic situation we decided that the workshop will be virtual this year.) This is the third such workshop. The first one was held in Marseille, France (2018) and the second one was in ��TV, UK (2019).

The topic of the workshop this year is "Planetary interiors and system architectures". The aims of the workshop are to discuss how PLATO may help to understand planetary interiors and give new and more precise constraints on them, and to identify which open issues of planetary system architecture could be solved by PLATO's future measurements. We will also discuss what was learned from earlier (CoRoT, Kepler/K2, TESS, and ground-based measurements) related to system architectures and how the observations are confronted by theory.

More information about PLATO ESP2019 can be found at https://platoesp.org/, including a link to the registration and abstract submission form. The closing date for registration is Wednesday, 30th of September 2020 at 23:59pm UTC+2.

We look forward to seeing you at the workshop. If you have any questions, please contact the LOC at psmoffice@warwick.ac.uk

PLATO Week 10 final details

Mon, 27 Apr 2020 08:00:00 GMT

PLATO Week 10 will now be held remotely from the 26th to 28th of May 2020.

PW10 is being organised by the Konkoly Observatory of the Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences and the PMC.
Owing to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the decision has been made to move the meeting online; the conference will be conducted using WebEx (access provided by ESA).

The schedule for the meeting has been updated following this change. Please go to the PLATO Week 10 website for more details. A detailed agenda for the meeting will be available nearer the time.

COVID-19: a message from the PLATO Consortium Lead

Fri, 03 Apr 2020 08:00:00 GMT

Heike Rauer, PLATO Consortium Lead, today circulated a message to all PMC members regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. You can see the full message by clicking on the title of this news item.

At the PSM Office, we echo Heike's message, and hope that everyone stays safe and well during this period of uncertainty.

PMC-Internal L2/L3 RR successfully concludes

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 09:00:00 GMT

The first major review of PSM activity, the L2/L3 Requirements Review, was closed-out on the 9th of March 2020.

This internal review, which was run completely by the PLATO Mission Consortium, assessed the requirements for the L2 & L3 data processing pipelines, the systems that take PLATO light curves and identify planetary candidates, confirm planetary systems, and derive stellar properties.

Although a large number of action items remain to be completed, this review is considered a success by all involved. Thank you to everyone who took part, in any capacity.

PLATO Week 10 announcement

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 12:00:00 GMT

PLATO Week 10 will be taking place from the 26th to the 28th May 2020, and will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

As usual, the meeting will be preceded by an ESA progress meeting (invitation only).

More details are available on the PW10 website.

PMC-Internal L2/L3 RR kicks-off

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 16:32:00 GMT

The first major review of PSM activity, the L2/L3 Requirements Review, successfully kicked-off on Friday 29th November. This internal review, which is run completely by the PLATO Mission Consortium and has only limited input from ESA, is assessing the requirements for the L2 & L3 data processing pipelines, the systems that take PLATO light curves and identify planetary candidates, confirm planetary systems, and derive stellar properties.

The initial phase of the review concludes on the 20th of December, and the review runs until the end of February 2020.

PDC job advert - database software developer #1

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 00:00:00 GMT

The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), Göttingen, Germany, invites applications for a Database Software Developer to work for the PLATO Data Centre (PDC). The position is available for an initial period starting as soon as possible until 31st March 2022, with the possibility of an extension that is contingent upon performance and project funding.

Please send your CV and application letter in English (certificates and reference letters may be in German) as one PDF file to burston@mps.mpg.de with the subject line “PDC-DB-sciprog-20191113”. Applications will be reviewed from the 1st December 2019 until the position is filled.

For information, please click the title of this news item.