Ariel Open Conference 2026
Ariel: Science, Mission & Community 2026
The Ariel space telescope, to be launched in 2029 as part of the ESA Science Programme, is the first mission dedicated to the determination of the chemical composition and thermal structure of hundreds of exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. Ariel has been conceived to deliver a spectroscopic survey of ~ 1000 transiting exoplanets, covering simultaneously the range 0.5-7.8 micron, and probing uniformly the gamut of planetary and stellar parameters.
The Ariel payload is developed by a consortium of more than 50+ institutes from 16 ESA countries, which include the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, with important contributions from NASA, JAXA and CSA.
The conference “Ariel: Science, Mission & Community 2026” will provide an overall summary of the Ariel’s science, instrument and operations and present the many activities that the Ariel team have planned to engage the science community at large and the public. These include educational and citizen-science programs such as ExoClock and the Ariel Data Challenges.
Conference registrations will open on September 15th.
More information about Ariel can be found here
We look forward to seeing you at the conference in March 2026!
Ariel Mission Consortium and ESA Ariel Science Team
Venue & Date
The event will be held between 17 to 19 March 2026 in the ESA’s Magali Vaissiere Conference Centre, located beside ESA ECSAT, Harwell Campus.
Venue: ESA Magali Vaissiere Conference Centre
Fermi Avenue
Harwell Campus
Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0FD
United Kingdom
Agenda
The full program will be updated closer to the conference start