Recently, an American university has announced its collaboration with NASA in the development and sending of a small artificial star into 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 radiation 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 has seen the light of day. The latter will consist of placing a small artificial star, a kind of mini-Sun, into orbit by 2030 with the aim of reproduce supernova radiation or galaxies as we perceive them from Earth.
This project was the subject of a detailed explanation in a press release published by George Mason University in Fairfax (United States) on June 10, 2024. According to those responsible for the project, this mission in collaboration with NASA should make it possible to better identify the different nuances of interpretation scientists in reading observation results. Furthermore, another objective will be to determine to what extent the Earth’s atmosphere plays the role of filter with regard to, among other things, radiation.
More precision in observations and calculations
“This mission focuses on measuring fundamental properties used daily in astronomical observations. This could 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 investigator of the Landolt mission.
Scientists added that the mission should allow situate an observation more precisely in a 3D sky. Remember that currently, the “red shift” method is used to calculate the distance between the Earth and a galaxy (or a supernova). Indeed, as light travels through the vacuum of space, the waves have tendency to elongate and shift in the visible spectrum towards the red. However, this technique has a fairly relative precision in calculating distances, namely a few light years.
It should be noted that the announcement of the launch of a satellite that would act as a mini-Sun in orbit around the Earth may seem frightening. However, the researchers have clarified that the device would not be no bigger than a shoebox. So, there is no reason to worry about this mission, especially since the lasers facing Earth will be a hundred times too weak to be visible to the naked eye, so only NASA telescopes will be able to observe their radiation.
