COROT (Convection and Rotation) is a CNES Petite Mission devoted to
asteroseismology and the search for extra-solar planets. It is due for launch in 2001. The
instrument is a 25cm diameter, 115cm focal length telescope with a single focal plane of 4
large area cooled CCDs. The obseervational programme will consist of an
exploratory programme in which stars brighter than 9th magnitude will be observed for 20
days giving coverage across the H-R diagram and a central programme in which 5 or 6
selected target fields will be observed for up to 150 days. This should yield a
sensitivity of 0.6 mu mag on a 6th magnitude star and 2.5mu mag on a 9th magnitude
star, and a precision on the frequencies of 0.1muHz.