French planet-seeking satellite gets to work

Paris, Feb 10: A French satellite designed to hunt out new planets has started work after a series of successful tests, the European Space Agency said.

Dubbed COROT, the satellite carries a telescope capable of detecting small, rocky planets by measuring the light emitted by a star and detecting the drop in brightness caused when a planet passes in front of it.

''The performance of the instruments and of the spacecraft is simply excellent. It is actually exceeding our expectations,'' said Malcolm Fridlund, ESA project scientist for COROT.

Scientists have deduced there are planets orbiting stars other than the sun by measuring their ''wobble'', or gravitational pull, but have never before been able to see them.

COROT will start scouring for planets after work to fine tune equipment is completed at the beginning of April.

Reuters