A small satellite named "Twinkle" will be launched in four years and provide new information about exoplanets, according to a press release from University College London (UCL). The details of the mission that will be lead by UCL and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) will be announced Friday at an open meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society.
"Twinkle is a very ambitious mission," said lead scientist, Giovanna Tinetti of UCL, according to the press release. "Nearly two thousand exoplanets -- planets orbiting stars other than our Sun -- have been discovered to date, but we know very little about these alien worlds. We can measure their mass, density and distance from their star.
"From that, we can deduce that that some are freezing cold, some are so hot that they have molten surfaces, some are vast balls of gas, like Jupiter, or small and rocky, like Earth. But beyond that, we just don't know. Twinkle will be the first mission dedicated to analyzing exoplanets atmospheres, and will give us a completely new picture of what these worlds are really like."
Twinkle will measure the starlight (sunlight) that passes through an exoplanets' atmosphere when the planet crosses in front of the star. The plan is to pick up "fingerprints," like water vapor or methane, according to the press release. Atmospheric characteristics can tell scientists whether or not a planet can support life.
Twinkle will be launched into a polar low-Earth orbit, according to the press release and will analyze 100 exoplanets in the Milky Way over the course of three years. There is a chance the life of Twinkle could extend to five years.
"This is an exciting opportunity to adapt the high-performance capacity we have developed at SSTL to deliver ground-breaking science," said Susan Jason, lead engineer from SSTL, according to the press release.
