Recently, an American university affirmed its collaboration with NASA in the development and sending of a small artificial star orbit around the earth by the end of the decade. Why is the American space agency interested in this project?
A project with NASA to reproduce the influence of supernovas
The American space agency (NASA) is often at the heart of space news because of its many projects. Recently, a new mission called Landolt was born. The latter will consist in placing a small artificial star in orbit, a kind of mini-sun, by 2030 with the objective of Reproduce the radiation of supernovas or galaxies as we perceive from the earth.
This project was the subject of a detailed explanation in a press release published by the University George Mason in Fairfax (United States) on June 10, 2024. According to project managers, this mission in collaboration with NASA should allow better identify the different shades of interpretation Scientists in reading observation results. In addition, another objective will be to determine how the earth’s atmosphere plays the role of filter with regard to radiation.
-More precision in observations and calculations
“This mission focuses on the measurement of the fundamental properties used daily in astronomical observations. This could have an impact and change the way we measure or understand the properties of stars, surface temperatures and the habitability of exoplanets ”said Eliad Peretz, the deputy principal researcher of the Landolt mission.
Scientists have added that the mission should allow locate more precisely an observation in a 3D sky. Remember that currently, the “red gap” method is used in order to calculate the distance between the earth and a galaxy (or a supernova). Indeed, as the light moves into the space of space, the waves have tendency to lie down and shift In the spectrum of the visible to the red. However, this technique has a fairly relative precision in the calculation of distances, namely a few light years.
Note the fact that the announcement of the launch of a satellite acting as a mini-Sun orbit around the earth can frighten. However, the researchers said that the system would not be No bigger than a shoe box. Thus, there is no reason to worry about this mission, especially since the lasers turned towards the earth will be a hundred times too weak to be visible to the naked eye, so that only the NASA telescopes will be able to observe their radiation.
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