Banner image: Artist's depiction of a "hot Jupiter" planet. (Credit:ÌęNASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)
A new miniature satellite designed and built at CUÌęBoulderâs (LASP) is providing proof that âcuteâ things can take on big scientific challenges.
The (CUTE) is slated to launch into space Sept. 27. The approximately $4 million spacecraft, a smaller-than-usual type of satellite known as a âCubeSat,â is about as large as a âfamily-sized box of Cheerios,â said LASP researcher Kevin France, principal investigator for the mission.
But it has mighty goals: Over the course of about 7 months, the mission will track the volatile physics around a class of extremely hot planets orbiting stars far away from Earth. Itâs the first CubeSat mission funded by NASA to peer at these distant worldsâmarking a major test of what small spacecraft may be capable of.
âItâs an experiment that NASA is conducting to see how much science can be done with a small satellite,â said France, professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. âThatâs exciting but also a little daunting.â
The mission will blast off aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket alongside the Landsat 9 satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Lompoc, California.Ìę
Once CUTE enters into orbit around Earth, it will set its sights on a suite of exoplanets called âhot Jupiters.â As their names suggest, these gaseous planets are both large and scalding hot, reaching temperatures of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. The satelliteâs findings will help scientists to better understand how these planets, and many others, evolve and even shrink over billions of years.Ìę
In recent years, LASP has led the development of multiple CubeSat missions to explore everything from the sunâs activity to supernovae in distant galaxies. Unlike larger space missions, which often net a price tag in the hundreds of millions of dollars, engineers can produce CubeSats on the cheap.
âAs little as a decade ago, many in the space community expressed the opinion that CubeSat missions were little more than âtoys,ââ said LASP Director Daniel Baker. âThere was recognition that small spacecraft could be useful as teaching and training tools, but there was widespread skepticism that forefront science could be done with such small platforms. I am delighted that LASP and the University of Colorado have led the way in demonstrating that remarkable science can be done with small packages. CUTE and other CU CubeSat missions are changing the landscape for basic research.â
Scorching planets
CUTE, in particular, tackles a hot topic in astrophysics.
Hot Jupiters, and their even more chaotic cousins ultra-hot Jupiters, are an especially inhospitable class of gaseous worlds. Take KELT-9b: This planet, which sits in a stellar system about 670 light years from our own, has a mass nearly three times larger than Jupiterâs. But KELT-9b also orbits much closer to its home starâso close that temperatures on the planet hit a mind-boggling 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit.Ìę
âBecause these planets are parked so close to their parent stars, they receive a tremendous amount of radiation,â France said.
That radiation takes a toll on a planet over time. At those temperatures, the atmospheres of hot Jupiters begin to expand like a pufferfish and may even tear away and escape into space.
Which is where CUTE comes in: Throughout its mission, the spacecraft will measure how fast gases are escaping from a minimum of 10 hot Jupiters, including KELT-9b. It will achieve this feat using its unique, rectangular telescope design, which was pioneered at LASP.
âUltimately CUTE has one major purpose, and that is to study the inflated atmospheres of these really hot, pretty gassy exoplanets,â said Arika Egan, a graduate student at LASP who has helped to develop the mission. âThe inflation and escape these exoplanetary atmospheres undergo are on scales just not seen in our own solar system.â
France added that the teamâs findings may tell scientists a lot not just about hot Jupiters but about the full range of planets that exist in the galaxy. That includes small and rocky worlds like Earth and its close neighbors. (Mars, for example, also lost much of its atmosphere over nearly 3 billion years, making the planet uninhabitable for humans).Ìę
âThe more places we understand atmospheric escape, the better we understand atmospheric escape as a whole,â France said. âWe can then apply these findings to different types of planets."
Bon voyage
He noted that CUTE is well-suited for probing the atmospheres of alien worlds. Unlike larger space missions, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, this satellite only has one job to do: To scan as many hot Jupiters as it can during its short lifespan.
France said that, after spending four years developing CUTE in Boulder, he and his team are feeling bittersweet about the missionâs upcoming launch. Egan, for her part, is eager for the little craft to make a small dent in questions about Earthâs place in the galaxy.
âWhen you look up at the sky and see thousands of stars, that is existential on its own,â she said. âBut then you think about the planets weâve discovered around those stars, thousands of planets. Weâve just barely scratched the surface of characterizing them, of understanding their diversity. How little we know is astounding, and joining the effort to learn more is fulfilling.â
Science team members on the CUTE mission include researchers from the University of Leiden and University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, University of Arizona, Space AVĂûÊȘ Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Toulouse in France.Ìę