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7 March 2025
CHEOPS Guest Observers 6th Announcement of Opportunity
Dr. Bruno Merín
European Space Agency
The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) mission foresees its 6th Announcement of Opportunity (AO-6). This call will invite the submission of research proposals to the Guest Observers (GO) Program.
Key Dates: The AO-6 call is foreseen to open on 18 March 2025 (12:00 CET) and close on 8 May 2025 (12:00 CEST).
Observing Cycle: The selected proposals will be part of the observing cycle from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. This period marks last year of the first mission extension of CHEOPS.
Scientific Opportunities: CHEOPS provides observers with access to space-based pointed ultra-high precision photometry. Research areas include the observations of exoplanet transits, eclipses, occultations, and phase curves. Furthermore, the scientific scope may extend to phenomena such as exomoons, ring structures, stellar activity, trans-Neptunian objects, or more.
Collaborative Synergies: The timely overlap of several space- and ground-based missions may provide exciting opportunities for synergies with NASA/ESA/CSA JWST, NASA/ESA HST, NASA TESS, ESO ground-based facilities, and more.
Novelties in cycle 6:
- More targets: only 50 GTO reserved targets, with all the rest being open to the entire community
- More time: up to 30% science observing time (around 1500 orbits) dedicated to the GO Programme
- Double-anonymous peer-review of proposals
- Zero-installation tools: cloud-based visibility and ETC web tools
Live hands-on tutorials: We foresee running hands-on tutorials in March and April 2025 at various time zones to guide you through the proposal preparation and submission process and answer all your questions. Please register if you would like to attend or watch the recordings.
Find out more about the CHEOPS mission, stay up-to-date about this opportunity, and feel free to email us with any questions. We look forward to receiving your observing proposals and advancing our understanding of exoplanetary and stellar systems.
Happy proposing!
Contact: [email protected]