Corot Project

[BrainForce]

Is sending COROT now can prove helpful to scientists at ground, with today's technology we might not be able to get the maximum.
but 6-7 yrs later it will prove to be much helpful with technology of that time,sending COROT was somewhat a wastage of money to "some extent"

Is corot able to detect that the wobble caused is by a binary star or a planet,in case it is not able to detect any change in luminous intensity of star.

[kay-pee]

Ya! corot is a waste of money....they must have waited for 10 years more.....

[Stargazer]

I disagree that Corot is a waste of money. We can't just put astronomy on hold because we want to wait for better tools. I expect Corot to increase the number of known exoplanets, and also show us a wider range of planets.

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by BrainForce

Is sending COROT now can prove helpful to scientists at ground, with today's technology we might not be able to get the maximum.
but 6-7 yrs later it will prove to be much helpful with technology of that time,sending COROT was somewhat a wastage of money to "some extent"

Is corot able to detect that the wobble caused is by a binary star or a planet,in case it is not able to detect any change in luminous intensity of star.

I frankly don't understand what you are trying to say. We will always have to use current technology...in space, we usually have to use technology of yesterday, due to the time it takes to plan and build satellites. In extreme cases, like the Saturn probe Cassini, it uses lots of gear from the 1980s.

COROT is an extremely interesting satellite, in that it is going to study starquakes and the interior of countless stars. It will teach us a lot of things about stars. When we match this with the data from SOHO, Hinode, DoubleStar and other space-based solar observation projects we will also learn a lot of new things about our own sun.This may be very important when it comes to prediction outbreaks, for example.

But COROT is also able to find smaller planets around other stars, and also planets that pass very close to the star. The astronomers on the project hope to find hundreds of rocky planets in (or closer to) the habitable zone. There have been no verified observations of such planets as of yet.

Space exploration is not a waste of money - it creates jobs and research. It is in general a very fruitful venture.

[kay-pee]

The uses... i don't disagree with u ...but technology hasn't been enough for expl. of exoplanets...

[Stargazer]

It's not enough if we want to see even smaller planets, or planets not in orbits that would cause transits edge-on to us, or if we want to study the surfaces of the planets. But what Corot offers is the possibility to detect some planets above several times the size of the Earth, and that is one of the early steps that scientists can take in exploring other planetary systems. In the future there will be technologies that makes it possible to detect even smaller planets, planets far away from their host stars, planets that does not transit their star from our point of view, and other difficult or as of today nearly impossible cases. But Corot is a step forward, because most planets detected so far have been mostly giant planets many times larger than Jupiter. But we don't have to worry; after Corot comes even more sophisticated instruments that will reveal even more planets.

[Tormod]

Stargazer is right, and don't miss the fact that COROT mission also is supposed to do a thorough survey of stars. The search for, and study of, exoplanets is just one aspect of the mission.

None of the criticism I see above is founded on *anything*. What is is that is so problematic with the COROT mission? I see no arguments from any of you folks, just things like "it's a waste of money" and "technology is not good enough". What's the real issue you're trying to convey?

[Roadam]

Some have problems with seeing any benefit from exploring the universe.
But to put it another way, would you wait to until better car technology is available to buy a car or drive in slightly older but still good enough? There are a lot of people who are researching space. So if we wait a few years until better technology comes, we would dismiss the point that this sattelite would in 6 years more or less be on the closing time of its mission and that it would already do a lot of work which data would only be slightly improved as new sattelite comes up. Technology doesnt develop that fast that it would mean life and death in time of 6 years. At least with optics and detection systems.