To research the atmospheres of distant planets, the Ariel Space Telescope got the green light to proceed.
Member States of the European Space Agency (ESA) officially adopted the proposal on Thursday to sign off two years of feasibility studies.
It is now clear that the nearly-billion-euro observatory will be opened in 2029.
IN SPACE - MAY 23: In this handout image provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA, the International Space Station and the docked space shuttle Endeavour orbit Earth during Endeavour's final sortie on May 23, 2011 in Space. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli captured the first-ever images of an orbiter docked to the International Space Station from the viewpoint of a departing vessel as he returned to Earth in a Soyuz capsule.
To understand how these objects developed and how they have changed over time, Ariel will examine the gases that shroud exoplanets.
It is expected that the results would help place the existence of our own solar system in a broader sense.
While European space exploration is undoubtedly a significant endeavor, Ariel is of special interest to the UK.
Principal investigator Prof Giovanna Tinetti will scientifically lead the mission from University College London. But Britain is going to play a big role in the technological front too.
The observatory's "business end" - its mirror system and instrumentation - will be installed and tested at the Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire at RAL Space.
"We're very good at exoplanet research in the UK; we've got one of the largest science communities in the world. So, yes, we want to have a big part in Ariel," said Dr. Caroline Harper, the head of science at the UK Space Agency.
"And, of course, in RAL Space, we have world-class system engineering, with the expertise and facilities in one place to do the assembly, integration, and testing," she told BBC News.
Ariel's significance to European skies
The "planet hunter" telescope's primary goal is to characterize exoplanet atmospheres, how they shape, and how they develop. But a host of instruments onboard the nearly $649 million space telescope, collecting radiation and chemical composition data, will reveal so much more about these alien worlds.
The very first mission to research the chemical composition and thermal properties of hundreds of alien worlds will be Ariel.
Scientists hope that the telescope will establish a catalog of different planets, varying from hot to temperate in temperature and gaseous to rocky composition.
Ariel's instruments will characterize elements In the planets' atmospheres and take out gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and water vapor.
Despite being several hundreds of millions of miles away, the space telescope also has the power to pock out more rare materials, such as metallic compounds.
"We are the first generation capable of studying planets around other stars," Prof. Tinetti told Express.co.uk.
Ariel will take this rare opportunity, according to Tinetti, to expose the existence and history of our galaxy's hundreds of diverse planets.
The telescope's capacity to research exoplanets to this extent is all the more remarkable given that since 1992 we have been only finding planets outside the solar system.
Since then, over 4,000 exoplanets across more than 3,000 systems have been detected by missions such as NASA's TESS or Kepler space telescopes.
Astronomers now know there are more planets than there are stars in the Milky Way.
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