Plato once observed that astronomy “compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another”. Soon a cosmic voyage bearing the ancient Greek philosopher’s name will gaze at stars many light years away as part of an expanding quest to find planets like our own.
The European Space Agency’s Plato satellite is due to launch early next year, armed with an array of 26 high-specification cameras. They will scan the thousands of so-called exoplanets — worlds beyond our solar system.
The programme is a sign of how rapidly knowledge of the cosmos is advancing. The first planet orbiting another star was discovered only in 1992. Plato is part of a historic effort to identify distant Earthlike worlds that hold lessons for our planet’s future and may even be capable of hosting life.