BRITE-Constellation: nanosatellites for precision photometry of bright stars
| Autor: | Weiss, W. W., Rucinski, S. M., Moffat, A. F. J., Schwarzenberg-Czerny, A., Koudelka, O. F., Grant, C. C., Zee, R. E., Kuschnig, R., Mochnacki, St., Matthews, J. M., Orleanski, P., Pamyatnykh, A., Pigulski, A., Alves, J., Guedel, M., Handler, G., Wade, G. A., Zwintz, K., CCD, Teams, Photometry Tiger |
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| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1086/677236 |
| Popis: | BRITE-Constellation (where BRITE stands for BRIght Target Explorer) is an international nanosatellite mission to monitor photometrically, in two colours, the brightness and temperature variations of stars generally brighter than mag(V) ~ 4, with precision and time coverage not possible from the ground. The current mission design consists of six nanosats (hence Constellation): two from Austria, two from Canada, and two from Poland. Each 7 kg nanosat carries an optical telescope of aperture 3 cm feeding an uncooled CCD. One instrument in each pair is equipped with a blue filter, the other with a red filter. Each BRITE instrument has a wide field of view (~24 degrees), so up to about 15 bright stars can be observed simultaneously, sampled in 32 pixel x 32 pixel sub-rasters. Photometry of additional fainter targets, with reduced precision but thorough time sampling, will be possible through onboard data processing. The BRITE sample is dominated by the most intrinsically luminous stars: massive stars seen at all evolutionary stages, and evolved medium-class stars at the very end of their nuclear burning phases. The goals of BRITE-Constellation are to (1) measure p- and g-mode pulsations to probe the interiors and ages of stars through asteroseismology; (2) look for varying spots on the stars surfaces carried across the stellar disks by rotation, which are the sources of co-rotating interaction regions in the winds of the most luminous stars, probably arising from magnetic subsurface convection; and (3) search for planetary transits. Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in the PASP |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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