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It turns out that the way humans have been looking at stars and how all our telescopes are calibrated is… well, let’s just say not 100% accurate.
This is why a small NASA ‘breadbox’ sized satellite, scheduled to launch in a couple of years, has space agencies and astronomers everywhere on edge.
This new NASA satellite will be small, but underestimating it is a big mistake. Once in orbit, 22,236 miles above our planet, the satellite will become an artificial star and could change our understanding of the universe and life itself.
Key Takeaways
- The Landolt mission will create a precisely calibrated artificial star to eliminate inaccuracies in current methods for measuring star brightness. This will improve our understanding of the universe.
- By allowing for more accurate measurements of starlight, the mission will enhance our ability to detect Earth-sized exoplanets and analyze their atmospheres for potential signs of life.
- The mission aims to replace the current dependence on ‘standard candle’ objects (whose brightness is assumed to be known) with a perfect calibration.
The Grand Prize of Flux Calibration
On June 10, George Mason University announced its first NASA Space Mission. The $19.5 million mission, approved by NASA, aims to accomplish something that has eluded scientists throughout history; accurately calibrate telescopes by measuring the brightness of stars.
Dubbed Landolt in honor of late astronomer Arlo Landolt, who put together widely used catalogs of stellar brightness throughout the 1970s to the 1990s, the mission could make ‘standard candle calibrations’ outdated. It could also reveal the mysteries of dark matter, provide answers to the mystery of the expansion of the universe, and accelerate the search for life beyond our planet.
Sylvester Kaczmarek, chief technology officer at OrbiSky Systems and a specialist in integrated artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, cybersecurity, and edge computing in the aerospace realm, spoke to Techopedia about the mission.
“This artificial ‘star’ will serve as a reference beacon, shining its carefully measured light alongside actual stars. By comparing the two, scientists will gain an unprecedented understanding of a star’s true brightness, a fundamental property known as absolute flux calibration.”
A ‘Game Changer’ in The Search for Life
The Landolt mission, set for launch in 2029, will use lasers and known emission rates of photons to create new stellar brightness catalogs. With these catalogs, telescopes around the world and in space will be able to better calibrate their equipment to get more accurate measurements.
Jamie Tayar, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Florida — one of nine universities collaborating on the mission — said the mission will set a new standard for understanding star brightness, leading to more precise estimates of their size, scale, and age. Tayar spoke about the deep implications of the project in a press release.
“Lots of our understanding of the universe relies on understanding how bright things are.
“The goal is to be able to figure out, for other planets orbiting other stars, whether they too could have oceans where life could presumably arise and live. For each star, you need to know exactly how much energy is coming from the star, and exactly how far away the planet is, and so on.”
Kaczmarek from OrbiSky Systems speaking to Techopedia described the implications of the Landolt mission as “profound”.
“Accurate knowledge of stellar brightness underpins our understanding of the cosmos. It allows us to more accurately determine the size, temperature, and age of stars — all critical factors in identifying which stars might host habitable planets,” Kaczmarek said.
“For exoplanet hunters, this mission is a game-changer. By refining our ability to measure starlight, we enhance our ability to detect the subtle dips in brightness caused when a planet passes in front of its star. This is particularly crucial for spotting smaller, Earth-sized worlds that are more likely to harbor life as we know it.”
Kaczmarek explained that the Landolt Mission’s data will revolutionize our ability to analyze the atmospheres of exoplanets. “As starlight filters through these alien skies, it carries the fingerprints of atmospheric gases,” Kaczmarek said.
“With more accurate measurements, scientists will be able to discern the subtle signatures of water vapor, oxygen, and other potential biosignatures, bringing us closer to answering the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe?
“The Landolt Mission’s artificial star may not be visible to the naked eye, but its impact on our understanding of the cosmos will be nothing short of illuminating.”
Stellar Photometry: From the ‘Women’s Map of The Stars’ to Arlo Landolt
Measuring the luminosity of stars — a science known as stellar photometry — is the foundation of astronomy and the exploration of celestial objects. The light of stars carries a trove of information across the vastness of space.
Astronomers and agencies like NASA use natural objects like Cepheid variable stars and Type 1a supernovae as ‘standard candles’ — objects whose brightness is already known and can be measured. However, these standard candles are far from perfect and leave room for calibration accuracy problems, identification issues, and limited applicability.
The father of stellar photometry, Edward Charles Pickering, revolutionized astronomy during his time as director of the Harvard Observatory. Pickering championed the contributions of women in science, collaborating with a team of about 80 women astronomers, including the brilliant Henrietta Swan Leavitt.
These dedicated women spent decades meticulously computing and cataloging vast amounts of star data. Their tireless work culminated in the creation of a groundbreaking celestial reference – the Women’s Map of the Stars, compiled between 1877 and 1919.
If Pickering and his women astronomers are the fathers of stellar photometry, Arlo Landolt is the architect of standard star analysis. Landolt’s work in the late 20th century built upon the foundation laid by Pickering and his team, focusing on developing a system of precisely measured stars for calibrating astronomical measurements. To honor his work the new NASA mission carries its name.
Our Star Telescope Calibration System Is Off
Erika Hamden, Director of the Space Institute and Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Arizona, told Techopedia that the Landolt mission will achieve something astronomers have wanted for a very long time: a perfectly calibrated “star” in space.
“We’ve realized that nearly all stars have some variability and can change over time, so there are no “perfect” standard stars. This means that our measurements are all a bit fuzzy, which really matters when measuring things like supernova brightness or planetary atmospheres.
“Our measurements of stars, for example, have changed over more than 100 years of astronomy, and it’s not always clear if that’s a real effect or just one of calibration,” Hamden warned.
The Landolt mission is expected to create a perfect artificial star using laser technology. “The laser puts out a precise, predictable amount of photons, so when it’s observed from the ground, astronomers will know exactly how bright it is and be able to calibrate all of their observations,” Hamden said.
“This will make the measurements more than ten times more accurate compared to using real stars in space, which makes a big difference in many things.”
Hamden explained that the mission is critical for detecting a habitable world like an Earth around another star. If we truly understand how bright the star is, we can better determine if a planet orbiting that star will be at a temperature that could support life.
“We can also understand how the star behaves: if it is active and variable, it might not be good for life on a planet, or calmer like our sun,” Hamden said. “We are also starting to carefully measure the atmospheres of planets around other stars — all in hopes of finding signatures of an atmosphere like our own.”
“Reducing the errors from calibration is an incredibly valuable part of detecting habitable worlds.”
The Bottom Line
The Dawn of a New Era in Astronomy: Unveiling the Universe with an Artificial Star
Astronomers have long been frustrated by the limitations of current methods for stellar calibration. Inaccurate measurements have introduced uncertainty into our understanding of the cosmos, hindering our ability to identify potentially habitable exoplanets and unravel the mysteries of the universe’s expansion.
However, a new dawn is upon us. NASA’s revolutionary Landolt mission, with its precisely calibrated artificial star, promises to revolutionize astronomy.
The impact of the Landolt mission will extend far beyond the realm of exoplanet detection. It will allow us to analyze the atmospheres of these distant worlds with far greater detail, potentially revealing the presence of water vapor, methane, and other potential biosignatures. With each step towards more accurate measurements, we inch closer to answering the age-old question: Are we alone in the universe?
