PLATO Week #18, 29-31 July 2026
Welcome to the PLATO Week in Oslo, Norway!
The PLATO Week #18 is scheduled for July 29–31, 2026.
Note: This is a closed event for PLATO Mission Consortium members. If you are a member of the consortium, please register and save the date!
Welcome the PLATO Week #18 in Oslo
Welcome to Oslo, the capital of Norway, and enjoy your three days at PLATO Week #18.
Join us at Domus Bibliotheca for the
As part of the PLATO Week#18, we have the privilege of welcoming Professor Heike Rauer, Principal Investigator of the PLATO Mission, Dr. Maximilian Günther, ESA Project Scientist of the PLATO Mission, and Professor Stephanie C. Werner, Director of the Centre for Planetary Habitability for a public evening event on Thursday the 30th of July (19:30 – 21:00) at Domus Bibliotheca.
The evening lecture "Exoplanets – Finding other Worlds with the PLATO mission" will focus on:
“Are we alone in the Universe? How common are planets like Earth?
The European Space Agency's upcoming PLATO mission is designed to help answer these fundamental questions. Scheduled for launch in spring 2027, the PLATO satellite is a unique space observatory equipped with 26 cameras working together to continuously monitor the brightness of more than a hundred thousand stars.
PLATO's strength lies not only in discovering new exoplanets, but also in characterizing them in remarkable detail. By combining observations from space and ground-based telescopes, astronomers will be able to determine the sizes, masses, mean densities, and ages of these distant worlds. This will provide an unprecedented census of planetary systems in our Galaxy and help us understand how planets form and evolve.
The mission will be particularly sensitive to small, Earth-sized planets orbiting Sun-like stars, including planets located in the so-called "habitable zone", where conditions may allow liquid water to exist.
As PLATO prepares for launch, its instruments have been completed, the first observing field has been selected, and extensive testing and mission preparations are underway.
This talk will provide an overview of the mission, its scientific objectives, the status of its preparations for launch, and its expected impact on exoplanet research in the coming decades.”
Important dates
27.04.2026 Registration opens with an email invitation
03.07.2026 Final deadline registration
03.07.2026 Deadline payment
29.07.2026 Start of the PLATO Week #18: Registration from 8:30 AM
31.07.2026 End of the PLATO Week #18:
Contacts
For questions about the venue and specific event, please contact: Hedda Susanne Molland, h.s.molland@geo.uio.no.
For urgent questions between July 4 and 28, please contact Konstantin Herbst, konstantin.herbst@geo.uio.no.
For questions about the PLATO Mission Consortium, please refer to the PLATO mission website or send an email to plato-consortium@dlr.de.
Host of PLATO Week #18
PHAB – Centre for Planetary Habitability, Dept of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norway
PHAB is one of the Norwegian Centres of Excellence (SFF) at University of Oslo
Scientific Organising Committee
Local Organising Committee
- Stephanie Werner
- Konstantin Herbst
- Vincent Kofman
- Administrative leader: Hedda Susanne Molland
The PLATO Mission by ESA
The PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is a space telescope searching for Earth-like planets – planned for launch in January 2027 by the European Space Agency and its PLATO Mission Consortium.
