Related papers: The PLATO Multiple Star Working Group (MSWG)

Microlensing has recently proven to be a valuable tool to search for extrasolar planets of Neptune- to super-Earth-mass planets at orbits of few AU. Since planetary signals are of very short duration, an intense and continuous monitoring is…

Massive gravitational microlensing programs were begun about a decade ago as a means to search for compact baryonic dark matter in the Galaxy, but before the first events were detected the technique was also proposed as a means of detecting…

Microlensing has proven to be a valuable tool to search for extrasolar planets of Jovian- to Super-Earth-mass planets at orbits of a few AU. Since planetary signals are of very short duration, an intense and continuous monitoring is…

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) has been designed in order to satisfy several different scientific objectives that can be addressed by a ten-year synoptic sky survey. However, LSST will also provide a large amount of data that…

The Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork (PLANET) is a worldwide collaboration of astronomers using semi-dedicated European, South African, and Australian telescopes to perform continuous, rapid and precise multi-band CCD photometric…

The upcoming space missions that will characterize exoplanets, such as PLATO and Ariel, will collect huge amounts of data that will need to be complemented with ground-based observations. The aim of the PLATOSpec project is to perform…

Stratospheric balloons offer accessible and affordable platforms for observations in atmosphere-constrained wavelength ranges. At the same time, they can serve as an effective step for technology demonstration towards future space…

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is optimized for observations in the near and mid infrared and will provide essential observations for targets that cannot be conducted from the ground or other missions during its lifetime. The state…

SPACE (SPectroscopic All-sky Cosmic Explorer) is a class-M mission proposed to ESA for the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 call and recently promoted to the next assessment study phase. SPACE will produce the first all-sky spectroscopic survey of…

This white paper advocates for the creation of a community-wide program to maintain precise mid-transit times of exoplanets that would likely be targeted by future platforms. Given the sheer number of targets that will require careful…

M dwarfs are important targets in the search for Earth-like exoplanets due to their small masses and low luminosities. Several ongoing and upcoming space missions are targeting M dwarfs for this reason, and the ESA PLATO mission is one of…

IAU Inter-Commission B2-C1-C2 WG Data-driven Astronomy Education and Public Outreach (DAEPO) was launched officially in April 2017. With the development of many mega-science astronomical projects, for example CTA, DESI, EUCLID, FAST, GAIA,…

We describe strategies and tactics for detecting transiting planets, as learned from the experience of the XO Project. A key component is the web-enabled collaboration with a longitudinally-distributed Extended Team of dedicated volunteers…

This White Paper outlines the importance of addressing the fundamental science theme <<How are charged particles energized in space plasmas>> through a future ESA mission. The White Paper presents five compelling science questions related…

The GAPS programme is an Italian project aiming to search and characterize extra-solar planetary systems around stars with different characteristics (mass, metallicity, environment). GAPS was born in 2012, when single research groups joined…

We present radial velocity follow-up obtained with ESPRESSO of the M-type star LTT 1445A (TOI-455), for which a transiting planet b with an orbital period of~5.4 days was detected by TESS. We report the discovery of a second transiting…

Thanks to the advent of sensitive gravitational wave (GW) and neutrino detectors, multi-messenger (MM) astronomy will deeply transform our understanding of the Universe contents and evolution over cosmological times. To fully exploit the…

We describe how the ESA Comet Interceptor mission, which is due to launch in 2028/29 to a yet-to-be-discovered target, can provide a conceptual basis for a future mission to visit an Interstellar Object. Comet Interceptor will wait in space…

This is a White Paper in support of the mission concept of the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT), proposed as a medium-sized ESA mission. We discuss the potential of LOFT for the study of stellar flares. For a summary, we refer to…

EarthFinder is a Probe Mission concept selected for study by NASA for input to the 2020 astronomy decadal survey. This study is currently active and a final white paper report is due to NASA at the end of calendar 2018. We are tasked with…