The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) was selected on October 19, 2012, as the first small mission (S-mission) in the ESA Science Programme and successfully launched on December 18, 2019, as a secondary passenger on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. CHEOPS is a partnership between ESA and Switzerland with important

We analyse the near-infrared colour-magnitude diagram of a field including the giant molecular cloud G0.253+0.016 (a.k.a. The Brick) observed at high spatial resolution, with HAWK-I@VLT. The distribution of red clump stars in a line of sight crossing the cloud, compared with that in a direction just beside it, and not crossing it, allow us to

We explore the relationships between the chemistry, ages, and locations of stars in the Galaxy using asteroseismic data from the K2 mission and spectroscopic data from the Apache Point Galactic Evolution Experiment survey. Previous studies have used giant stars in the Kepler field to map the relationship between the chemical composition and the

Upcoming large-area narrow band photometric surveys, such as Javalambre Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS), will enable us to observe a large number of galaxies simultaneously and efficiently. However, it will be challenging to analyse the spatially resolved stellar populations of galaxies from such big data to

OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) is a NASA mission to return a sample of asteroid (101955) Bennu. Photometric modeling of Bennu's surface is a key element of both sample site characterization and our broader scientific understanding of the asteroid. Bennu's heterogeneous surface

The Fermi Large Area Telescope gamma-ray source 3FGL J2039.6-5618 contains a periodic optical and X-ray source that was predicted to be a 'redback' millisecond pulsar (MSP) binary system. However, the conclusive identification required the detection of pulsations from the putative MSP. To better constrain the orbital parameters for a directed