The PLATO field selection process

II. Characterization of LOPS2, the first long-pointing field

¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei”, Università degli Studi di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
³ Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Planetenforschung, Rutherfordstraße 2, 12489 Berlin-Adlershof, Germany
⁴ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Via S. Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy
⁵ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati, 33, 00078 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy
⁶ SSDC-ASI, Via del Politecnico, snc, 00133 Roma, Italy
⁷ Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
⁸ INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento, 1, 90129 Palermo, Italy
⁹ Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für Optische Sensorsysteme, Rutherfordstraße 2, 12489 Berlin-Adlershof, Germany
¹⁰ Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CNES, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Technopôle de Marseille-Etoile, 38, rue Frédéric Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille cedex 13, France
¹¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
¹² LESIA, CNRS UMR 8109, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Denis Diderot, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon, France
¹³ European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands
¹⁴ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC–INTA), Depto. de Astrofísica, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
¹⁵ Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
¹⁷ Armagh Observatory & Planetarium, College Hill, Armagh, BT61 9DG, UK
¹⁸ Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Malteserstraße 74-100, 12249 Berlin, Germany
¹⁹ Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland

^★ Corresponding author; valerio.nascimbeni@inaf.it

Received: 20 September 2024
Accepted: 11 January 2025

Abstract

PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) is an ESA M-class mission to be launched by the end of 2026 to discover and characterize transiting planets around bright and nearby stars, and in particular habitable rocky planets hosted by solar-like stars. Over the mission lifetime, an average of 8% of the science data rate will be allocated to Guest Observer programs selected by ESA through public calls. Hence, it is essential for the community to know in advance where the observing fields will be located. In a previous paper, we identified two preliminary long-pointing fields (LOPN1 and LOPS1) for PLATO, respectively in the northern and southern hemispheres. Here we present LOPS2, a slightly adjusted version of the southern field that has recently been selected by the PLATO Science Working Team as the first field to be observed by PLATO for at least two continuous years, following the scientific requirements. In this paper, we describe the astrophysical content of LOPS2 in detail, including known planetary systems, bright stars, variables, binary stars, star clusters, and synergies with other current and future facilities.