the European space Agency (ESA) has postponed the launch of innovative space satellite, designed to study planets outside the Solar system, less than an hour before the start due to "software errors". According to ESA, the launch will be postponed at least for a day.
the Launch of Cheops was scheduled for Tuesday morning at 8:54 GMT on the launcher "Soyuz-Fregat" from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Automatic start sequence of the "Union" was interrupted during the final countdown in just 25 minutes before the start.
"unfortunately, the launch of the Soyuz spacecraft today was cancelled due to software errors in the top rung of the Frigate," wrote the scientific Director ESA Gunther Hasinger on Twitter. "With this challenging mission, we will not take any more chances".
After the launch of Cheops will be the first mission of ESA devoted to the study of exoplanets - planets outside the Solar system.
It will not so much look for a new planet, how much to study already found. Goals for research will be selected from data collected by ground-based projects to search for exoplanets such as SuperWASP. Then, using data from "Cheops", the scientists will have to choose the candidates for a more thorough examination with the aid of large telescopes, such as the future European supertelescope E-ELT or the successor of the Hubble telescope — the telescope "James Webb".
"Cheops" will scan a few hundred already known planetary systems, and will significantly clarify the parameters of the so-called "transit", that is, the phenomenon of lowering the degree of the luminosity of the star during the passage between it and the observer exoplanets. Since we are talking about objects with known weight, obtained more accurate data will allow us to more accurately calculate their density.
Search for "little green men" in the priorities of the mission "Cheops" is not included. But they can be detected or can be detected a planet with signs of biological activity in ESA.
