NASA announced last week that it will contribute to a European Space Agency mission scheduled to launch in 2028. The spacecraft, called ARIEL (for Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey), will be the first space mission dedicated to studying exoplanet atmospheres.
During its primary mission lasting some four years, ARIEL will study the atmospheres of roughly 1,000 exoplanets. NASA’s contribution, an instrument called CASE, will let astronomers tell whether these exoplanets’ skies are cloudy, hazy or clear. The results will help astronomers understand how planets and their atmospheres form and change over time.
So far, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets that pass in front of their stars from our point of view. With the right tools, astronomers can study light from the host stars that pass through the planets’ atmospheres. This can reveal information like the chemical makeup and temperatures of these atmospheres as well as what chemical reactions are ...
