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NASA\u2019s EXCITE Mission Prepared for Scientific Balloon Flight<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Scientists and engineers are ready to fly an infrared mission called EXCITE (EXoplanet Climate Infrared TElescope) to the edge of space.\u00a0<\/p>\n
EXCITE\u00a0is designed to study atmospheres around\u00a0exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, during circumpolar long-duration scientific balloon flights. But first, it must complete a test flight during\u00a0NASA\u2019s fall 2024 scientific ballooning campaign\u00a0from Fort Sumner, New Mexico.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEXCITE can give us a three-dimensional picture of a planet\u2019s atmosphere and temperature by collecting data the whole time the world orbits its star,\u201d said Peter Nagler, the mission\u2019s principal investigator at\u00a0NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center\u00a0in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cOnly a handful of these types of measurements have been done before. They require a very stable telescope in a position to track a planet for several days at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
EXCITE will study hot Jupiters, giant gas exoplanets that complete an orbit once every one to two days and have temperatures in the thousands of degrees. The worlds are tidally locked, which means the same side always faces the star.<\/p>\n
The telescope will observe how heat is distributed across the planet, from the scalding hemisphere facing the star to the relatively cooler nightside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It will also determine how molecules in a world\u2019s atmosphere absorb and emit light over the entire orbit, a process called phase-resolved\u00a0spectroscopy. Not only can this data reveal the presence of compounds \u2014 like water, methane, carbon dioxide, and others \u2014 but also how they circulate globally as the planet orbits its star.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s\u00a0Hubble,\u00a0James Webb, and retired\u00a0Spitzer\u00a0space telescopes have collected a handful of these measurements between them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2014, for example, Hubble and Spitzer observed an exoplanet called WASP-43 b. To collect data over the world\u2019s 22-hour day, scientists needed\u00a060 hours of Hubble time and 46 hours from Spitzer. Resource-intensive studies like this on space-based observatories are difficult. Time is a limited resource, and studies must compete with hundreds of other requests for that time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring its first science flight, EXCITE aims to fly for over a dozen days from the\u00a0Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility\u2019s site in Antarctica,\u201d said Kyle Helson, an EXCITE team member and a research scientist at the\u00a0University of Maryland, Baltimore County\u00a0and NASA Goddard. \u201cAnd at the pole, the stars we\u2019ll study don\u2019t set, so our observations won\u2019t be interrupted. We hope that the mission will effectively double the number of phase-resolved spectra available to the science community.\u201d<\/p>\n
EXCITE will fly to about 132,000 feet (40 kilometers) via a scientific balloon filled with helium. That takes it above 99.5% of Earth\u2019s atmosphere. At that altitude, the telescope will be able to observe multiple infrared wavelengths with little interference.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe telescope collects the infrared light and beams it into the spectrometer, where it kind of goes through a little obstacle course,\u201d said Lee Bernard, an EXCITE team member and a graduate research assistant at\u00a0Arizona State University\u00a0in Tempe. \u201cIt bounces off mirrors and through a prism before reaching the detector. Everything must be aligned very precisely \u2014 just a few millimeters off center and the light won\u2019t make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The spectrometer rests inside a vessel called a cryostat situated behind the telescope. The cryostat cools the spectrometer\u2019s detector \u2014 once a flight candidate from Webb\u2019sNIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph)\u2014 to about 350 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (minus 210 degrees Celsius) so it can measure tiny intensity changes in the infrared light.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/excite-detector-15.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/figure>The entire telescope and cryostat assembly rests in a rowboat-shaped base where it can rotate along three axes to maintain stable pointing down to 50 milliarcseconds. That\u2019s like holding a steady gaze on a U.S. quarter coin from 65 miles away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral different institutions contributed to EXCITE\u2019s subsystems,\u201d said Tim Rehm, an EXCITE team member and a graduate research assistant at\u00a0Brown University\u00a0in Providence, Rhode Island. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see them all assembled and working together. We\u2019re excited to do this test flight, and we\u2019re looking forward to all the future science flights we hope to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EXCITE instrument was primarily built by NASA Goddard, Brown, Arizona State University, and StarSpec Technologies in Ontario, with additional support from collaborators in the U.S., Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s scientific balloons offer frequent, low-cost access to near-space to conduct scientific investigations and technology maturation in fields such as astrophysics, heliophysics, and atmospheric research, as well as training for the next generation of leaders in engineering and science. To follow the missions in the 2024 Fort Sumner fall campaign, visit NASA\u2019s CSBF (Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility) website for real-time updates of a balloon\u2019s altitude and GPS location during flight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia manages the agency\u2019s scientific balloon flight program with 10 to 15 flights each year from launch sites worldwide. Peraton, which operates CSBF in Texas, provides mission planning, engineering services, and field operations for NASA\u2019s scientific balloon program. The CSBF team has launched more than 1,700 scientific balloons over some 40 years of operations. NASA\u2019s balloons are fabricated by Aerostar. The NASA Scientific Balloon Program is funded by the NASA Headquarters Science Mission Directorate Astrophysics Division.<\/p>\n
By\u00a0<\/strong>Jeanette Kazmierczak<\/strong> Media Contact:<\/strong>
NASA\u2019s God<\/strong>dard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Claire Andreoli<\/strong>
301-286-1940<\/strong>
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov<\/strong>
NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.<\/strong><\/p>\nShare<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n