The PLATO Mission

The PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) mission, led by ESA and scheduled for launch late 2026, is designed to detect and characterize exoplanets and their host stars through high-precision space photometry. Building on the legacy of CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS, PLATO uniquely combines planetary transit detection with asteroseismology for thousands and thousands of solar-type stars. This synergy will enable the determination of stellar and planetary masses, radii, and ages with unprecedented accuracy.This presentation introduces the PLATO mission, its main scientific goals, instrumentation, and observing strategy. Particular emphasis is placed on the central role of asteroseismology in achieving PLATO’s science objectives — from constraining stellar evolution models to probing convective–radiative interfaces, internal rotation, and magnetic activity.By providing an extensive and homogeneous dataset of stellar observations, PLATO will mark a major step forward in stellar physics and exoplanetary science, enabling the community to explore the diversity and evolution of stars and their planetary systems with an unprecedented level of detail.