Preparation of mission PLATO, its data exploitation, and applications in asteroseismology studies

The PLATO mission (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillation of stars) is the next ESA medium-sized mission (M3), scheduled to launch at the end of 2026. This mission will capitalize on the developments of successful past missions such as CoRoT, Kepler/K2, TESS, and CHEOPS which studied stars and their planetary systems.
PLATO’s main objectives include the transits search and characterization of terrestrial-type exoplanets, and the study in asteroseismology of a large a large number of pulsating stars. Transit measurements and asteroseismology are the main methods that will be used for the characterization and precise determination of physical parameters such as mass, radii, and ages. I will introduce the PLATO mission and its scientific objectives, the stellar core and complementary science programs, the current status of the mission, IAA-CSIC stellar variability group involvement in data exploitation, and innovative techniques in asteroseismology light curve analysis.