The UH telescope at Maunakea involved in NASA’s Artificial Star mission

(BIVN) – A NASA space mission that plans to place an artificial “star” in orbit around Earth will have a link to a University of Hawaiʻi telescope at Maunakea.

NASA’s “Star” will be a satellite that the University says will be used by scientists “to precisely calibrate telescopes and more accurately measure the brightness of objects ranging from nearby stars to distant supernova explosions.” in distant galaxies”.

NASA’s $19.5 million Landolt Space Mission will involve astronomers at the UH Institute for Astronomy (IfA) and use the UH88 telescope to make observations to generate fresh catalogs of star brightness.

“It will improve our ability to more precisely measure the properties of the stars in our galaxy, and thus the planets orbiting them,” said Daniel Huber, associate professor at the IfA and a member of the Landolt mission science team. Measurements from NASA’s Landolt Mission will enable tremendous progress for a wide range of ground-based astronomical observations.

From the University of Hawaiʻi:

Prime observing conditions at Maunakea where the UH88 telescope is located make the IfA-run observatory an ideal facility to support NASA’s Landolt mission, according to UH astronomers. The NASA mission is named after the late astronomer Arlo Landolt, who compiled extensive catalogs of star brightness from the 1970s and into the 1990s. The Landolt Space Mission will send a satellite into orbit in 2029 that will emit photons at a known speed and will be observed alongside real stars to create accurate stellar brightness catalogs. To achieve this, the satellite, acting as an artificial star, will emit light from eight lasers directed at ground-based optical telescopes, allowing the precise calibration of these instruments for observations.

UH88: The UH 88 telescope will be one of two ground-based telescopes to observe the Landolt satellite.

Lantern spinning on the ground

The artificial star will circle Earth at a distance of 22,236 miles, positioned far enough to resemble a star when viewed through telescopes from Earth. This orbit also synchronizes the satellite’s speed with Earth’s rotation, ensuring that it remains stationary over the United States throughout its first year in space. The artificial star will not be bright enough to see with the naked eye, but it can be observed with a personal telescope at home.

Scientists expect that the planned mission will begin to address several open challenges in astrophysics such as the speed and acceleration of the universe’s expansion.

“Today, when we look at a star with a telescope, no one can tell you the rate of photons or the brightness coming from it with the desired level of precision,” said Peter Plavchan, associate professor at George Mason University and principal investigator. of the mission. “Now we will know exactly how many photons per second come out of this source with an accuracy of 0.25%.

NASA’s Landolt Space Mission is led by George Mason University. The team also includes Blue Canyon Technologies, California Institute of Technology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Mississippi State University, Montreal Planetarium and iREx/University of Montreal, University of Florida, University of Minnesota – Duluth and University of Victoria.