A satellite of the French National Space Agency, CNES, designed to search for planets of other stars and to study the structure of stars through their vibrations (known as stellar seismology or asteroseismology). The craft's name is a contraction of COnvection, ROtation & planetary Transits. COROT carried a 0.27-m telescope to monitor the changes in a star's brightness that came from a planet crossing in front of it. COROT was able to detect ‘starquakes’ that send ripples across a star's surface, altering its brightness. The exact nature of the ripples allows astronomers to calculate the star's mass, age and chemical composition. COROT launched in 2006 and decommissioned in 2013.