NASA, in collaboration with several universities and institutions, is preparing to launch the Landolt Space Mission by 2029, aiming to place an artificial star, a shoebox-sized satellite named Landolt with eight lasers, in a geosynchronous orbit around Earth at an altitude of approximately 22,236 miles (35,785 kilometers).
The artificial star will emit controlled light beams, mimicking a real star's characteristics, allowing scientists to compare its brightness to actual stars and create more accurate stellar brightness catalogs. This could enhance the accuracy of ground-based telescopes by enabling precise measurements of brightness for stars, objects in our galaxy, and beyond, potentially improving the understanding of stellar evolution, habitable zones, dark energy, cosmic expansion, and aiding in the discovery of habitable exoplanets.
The artificial star, costing $19.5 million and the size of a shoebox, will be visible through a personal telescope but not with the naked eye. Named after astronomer Arlo Landolt, known for his stellar brightness catalogs, the mission is expected to significantly impact astronomy by improving the understanding of stars, exoplanets, dark energy, and more, potentially leading to breakthroughs in astrophysics and stellar photometry.
The mission's ground control center will be based at George Mason University in Virginia, and it builds on the work of astronomer Landolt, known for stellar brightness catalogs. By comparing the artificial star's laser brightness with real stars, scientists can create more accurate brightness databases, contributing to understanding dark energy, the universe's expansion, and potentially finding habitable planets similar to Earth.
Landolt Mission also focuses on studying a star's total brightness, particularly during a nova event expected between now and September in the Northern Crown of the Milky Way, where a red giant continuously loses hydrogen, leading to an eventual thermonuclear explosion visible from Earth for approximately a week.
Sources: NASA, George Mason University, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Blue Canyon Technologies, Caltech, University of Florida, University of Hawaiʻi, University of Montreal, University of Victoria, businessinsider.com, me.mashable.com, in.mashable.com, thesun.co.uk, news.yahoo.com, thescottishsun.co.uk, businessinsider.in, jang.com.pk, ffxnow.com, supercarblondie.com, openthenews.com, ummid.com, caltech.edu, thetimeshub.in, gadgets360.com, interestingengineering.com, techtimes.com, voanews.com.
This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.
