ByDaniel Strain

Principal investigator
Kevin France

Funding
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collaboration + support
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP); NASA Astronomy; Space Research Institute of the American Academy of Science in Graz, Austria; Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland; the University of Toulouse, France; the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands; the University of Arizona

Graduate students and LASP engineer Nicholas DeCicco install ŷڱƵTE into LANDSAT-9A new miniature satellite designed and built at has mighty goals. It’s thefirst CubeSat mission funded by NASA to peer atone class of exoplanets, marking a major test ofwhat thesesmall spacecraft are capable of.

Since its launch in 2021, has been tracking thevolatile physics around “hot Jupiters”—a class oflarge and extremely hot planets orbiting distantstars. ŷڱƵTE is measuring how quickly gasesare escaping froma minimum of 10 of theseexoplanets using its unique, rectangulartelescope design. The findings may tell scientistsa lot about hot Jupiters and the full range ofplanets in the galaxy.

“The more places we understand atmosphericescape, the better we understand it as a whole,”said mission principal investigator Kevin France.

Photo: ŷڱƵ Boulder Astrophysics and Planetary Sciences graduate students and LASP engineer Nicholas DeCicco install ŷڱƵTE into the LANDSAT-9 secondary payload dispenser at Vandenberg Space Force Base in July 2021.

Photo byNASA/Parsons Corporation