Abstract

The Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite (CHEOPS) is the first ESA space mission dedicated primarily to the study of exoplanetary systems. The satellite, carrying a 30cm photometric telescope, has been launched successfully in December 2019 and has seen first light in January 2020. Throughout it’s nominal mission of 3.5 years, it will perform ultra-high precision photometry of bright stars know to host extrasolar planets. Next to searching for transits of planets known from radial velocities and measuring precise radii of known transiting planets, CHEOPS will dedicate approximately 25% of its observing time to characterizing exoplanet atmospheres. In this talk, I will describe the CHEOPS space mission, summarize its scientific program and detail how we will use CHEOPS to probe exoplanet atmospheres, such as optical-light occultations and planetary phase curves. After introducing the mission, I will give an update on it’s current status, performances and show first science results.