PLATO, or PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars, is being built to find nearby potentially habitable worlds around Sun-like stars that we can examine in detail.

The space telescope will blast into orbit on Europe’s new rocket, Ariane-6, which made its maiden flight last week after being developed at a cost of €4billion (£3.4billion).

Dr David Brown, of the University of Warwick, is giving an update on the mission at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull this week.