NASA Is Launching a Dazzling Star Into Space—and It's 100% Fake
Studying distant stars is difficult without absolute flux calibration points—stars that can help astronomers calibrate their instruments.
So, NASA—along with George Mason University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology—is going to place an artificial star into geostationary orbit to help improve astronomical observations around the world.
Known as the Landolt Space Mission, this small satellite will be equipped with eight lasers capable of mimicking most stars and supernova found throughout the cosmos.
Major breakthroughs in human spaceflight and astrophysics often come in big packages—things like the Saturn V rocket or the gargantuan James Webb Space Telescope come to mind. But there are other, smaller space missions that carry with them some big aspirations—missions like NASA’s recently announced Landolt CubeSat satellite.
Although described as an “artificial star,” this satellite—named after the late astronomer Arlo Landolt, who created the widely used photometric standards for measuring star light—is incredibly small at roughly the size of a breadbox. According to a press statement from George Mason University in Virginia, which will be the home of the Landolt Space Mission, the $19.5 million project’s goal is to mimic the light of stars in Earth’s night sky so astronomers can accurately calibrate their instruments.
This is known as flux calibration, and by creating an artificial star—and, crucially, knowing its exact photons-per-minute output—will help aid in the search for dark matter and even extraterrestrial life by making telescopes more accurate. Absolute calibration points are difficult in astronomy due to Earth’s atmospheric interference, but also because astronomers can’t be 100% certain of the photometric output of distant stars.
With Landolt in orbit, four ground-based telescopes in Virginia, Hawai’i, California, and Chile will be able to help astronomers determine the absolute flux capacity of a star at around 0.25%—roughly 10 times more accurate than what is currently possible.
“This mission is focused on measuring fundamental properties that are used daily in astronomical observations,” Eliad Peretz, Landolt’s deputy principal investigator, said in the press statement. “It might impact and change the way we measure or understand the properties of stars, surface temperatures, and the habitability of exoplanets.”
The construction of the satellite will be the result of a partnership between George Mason University, NASA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and nine other organizations. Equipped with 8 different lasers, this small artificial star will be able to mimic almost any star—or even supernova—found in the night sky. Being able to more accurately study supernova in particular could help improve our estimations about the expansion rate of the universe, which directly ties into the search for dark energy.
“This calibration under known laser wavelength and power will remove effects of atmosphere filtration of light and allow scientists to significantly improve measurements,” Peter Pachowicz from George Mason University said in a press statement. “Our team will design, build, and integrate the payload, which—because it’s going very high into geostationary orbit—must handle incredible challenges.”
Once launched in 2029, this pint-sized satellite will be placed in a geosynchronous orbit roughly 22,236 miles above Earth’s surface. At that distance, terrestrial stargazers won’t see the satellite without the aid of a telescope—so, in a way, it’s sort of like an intentional and scientifically beneficial Starlink satellite (of which astronomers are none too happy about). But more importantly, this distance allows the satellite to keep pace with the Earth’s rotation, so the star will appear fixed in space over the U.S.
While the night sky in the northern hemisphere will play host to an artificial interloper, at it’s aiding humanity its quest to better understand the universe and our place in it.
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