{"id":775626,"date":"2023-12-14T23:27:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T04:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=775626"},"modified":"2023-12-14T23:27:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T04:27:51","slug":"a-tiny-telescope-is-revealing-hot-jupiter-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=775626","title":{"rendered":"A Tiny Telescope is Revealing \u201cHot Jupiter\u201d Secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A recent study presented this week at the 2023 meeting of the American Geophysical Union discusses observations of \u201chot Jupiters\u201d from the NASA-funded CubeSat mission known as the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE). Unlike most exoplanet-hunting telescopes, whose sizes are comparable to a small school bus, CUTE measures 36 centimeters (14 inches) in length, equivalent to the size of a cereal box. These findings come after members of the team, which consists of undergraduate and graduate students, published an overview paper about CUTE in <em>The Astronomical Journal<\/em> in January 2023 and results from CUTE observing WASP-189b in <em>The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/em> in August 2023.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-164839\"\/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CUTE: A cereal-sized satellite exploring distant worlds - Laboratory for Atmospheric &amp; Space Physics\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0CpM2CvtQ10?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Launched in September 2021, CUTE has focused its ultraviolet capabilities on several hot Jupiters to better understand the atmospheric escape that occurs on these worlds since they orbit so close to their parent stars. For example, WASP-189b has an orbital period of 2.7 days, which is a fraction of the 88 days that Mercury, the innermost planet in our solar system, takes to orbit our Sun. For that study, the team used CUTE to identify that WASP-189b was having its atmosphere escape at a mind-blowing rate of 400 million kilograms (882 million pounds) per second due to its scorching surface temperatures of approximately 8,315 degrees Celsius (15,000 degrees Fahrenheit).<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CU Boulder lab designs small satellite that will launch into space under NASA-funded mission\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b5cuHWvT42w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Video published days before the launch of CUTE in September 2021 discussing the mission and its goals.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Additionally, with WASP-189b being located about 325 light-years from Earth, this demonstrates CUTE\u2019s incredible observational capabilities despite its small size. Using CUTE, which is currently orbiting 525 kilometers (326 miles) above Earth\u2019s surface, astronomers hope to gain greater insight into the formation and evolution of planets outside our solar system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to understand how our solar system fits into the family of solar systems in the universe,\u201d said Dr. Kevin France, who is the CUTE Principal Investigator, an associate professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at CU Boulder, lead author of the overview paper, and co-author on the WASP-189b paper. \u201cThat means understanding the big planets, the small planets, the ones that could have life and the ones that definitely don\u2019t\u2014and all of the important physical processes that are operating on these planets.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Credit: European Space Agency<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>While WASP-189b is likely the most promising example of CUTE\u2019s incredible capabilities, the CUTE team has observed a total of seven hot Jupiters, with some results more exciting than others. For example, the team observed MASCARA-4b, which is located approximately 557 light-years from Earth, and KELT-9b, which is located approximately 667 light-years from Earth, with the team finding barely any gas escaping and \u201csomewhere in the middle\u201d, respectively. However, atmospheric escape isn\u2019t limited to only hot Jupiters, as better understanding this phenomenon could help astronomers better understand the evolution of \u201csuper-Earths\u201d, as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of evidence that suggests that super Earths begin as planets the size of Neptune with large, puffy atmospheres, which then lose so much mass that all that is left is the rocky core and possibly a thin atmosphere,\u201d said Dr. France. \u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How do Astronomers Determine Exoplanet Atmospheres\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pTLnTGcu6rk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Despite its promise to teach astronomers more about hot Jupiters and escaping atmospheres, the time to use CUTE is limited, as it is currently scheduled to re-enter the Earth\u2019s atmosphere sometime in 2027.<\/p>\n<p>What else will CUTE teach astronomers about hot Jupiters and atmospheric escape in the next few years, and what new insights will astronomers learn about these unique worlds in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!<\/p>\n<p><em>As always, keep doing science &amp; keep looking up!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-24000880-164839-657bd37df359a\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/#blog_id=24000880&amp;post_id=164839&amp;origin=www.universetoday.com&amp;obj_id=24000880-164839-657bd37df359a\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-24000880-164839-657bd37df359a\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/164839\/a-tiny-telescope-is-revealing-hot-jupiter-secrets\/?rand=772204\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent study presented this week at the 2023 meeting of the American Geophysical Union discusses observations of \u201chot Jupiters\u201d from the NASA-funded CubeSat mission known as the Colorado Ultraviolet&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":775627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-775626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=775626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/775627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=775626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=775626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=775626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}