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BRITE-Constellation: Nanosatellites for Precision Photometry of Bright Stars

2014; Institute of Physics; Volume: 126; Issue: 940 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/677236

1538-3873

W. W. Weiß, S. M. Ruciński, A. F. J. Moffat, A. Schwarzenberg‐Czerny, Otto Koudelka, C. Cordell Grant, Robert Zee, R. Kuschnig, S. M. Mochnacki, J. M. Matthews, P. Orleański, A. A. Pamyatnykh, A. Pigulski, J. Alves, M. Guêdel, G. Handler, G. A. Wade, K. Zwintz,

Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies

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°), so up to about 15 bright stars can be observed simultaneously, sampled in 32 × 32 pixels 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-mass 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.