2000 trillion trillion (H is) might not sound like an option, but NASA is aiming to launch an artificial “star” into the US sky within the decade.
As seen from Earth, the brightness of a star varies depending on many factors, including distance, the type of star, what stage in the star’s life cycle it is in, etc. By measuring these parameters very precisely, we can figure out how fast the universe is expanding, for example by seeing how far away a star is and how intense its light is. Redshifted On our journey.
For these kinds of projects, you need to know the brightness of a star very precisely, which is where an artificial star comes in. The Landolt mission, named after astronomer Arlo Landolt, will help achieve that precision by placing a calibrated light source in orbit 35,785 kilometers (22,236 miles) from Earth, when it launches in 2029.
“The goal is to understand whether other planets orbiting other stars have oceans where life could develop and be habitable,” explained Jamie Tayyar, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Florida. statement“For each star, we need to know exactly how much energy is coming from it, how far away the planets are, and so on.”
of Artificial Star,Really CubeSatwill be in synchronous orbit above the United States for its first year, with the goal that the “star” will beam photons with a known emission rate back to telescopes on Earth, where astronomers can observe the artificial star next to space objects of interest and assess its brightness.
“The Landolt mission will allow us to remeasure the brightnesses of millions of stars,” explained Peter Plavchan, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at George Mason University. paper About the project: “Such measurements can only be achieved with an artificial star orbiting in a universe where the physical photon flux is precisely known. As a result, Landolt will enable refinement of dark energy parameters, improving our ability to assess the habitability of terrestrial planets and advancing fundamental constraints on stellar evolution.”
The mission is expected to help identify habitable zones around stars and ultimately lead to the discovery of other planets that could harbor life.
“There are a lot of big questions in astronomy: How did we get here? Are there other planets like ours? Do aliens exist?” Thayer added. “But these are really hard questions, and to answer them you need to have very precise measurements.”
