[ad_1]
May 17 (UPI) – NASA's smallest exoplanet hunting satellite, the CubeSat ASTERIA, recently captured photographs of Los Angeles taken 250 miles above the surface of the Earth. The reaction propulsion laboratory of the space agency has published the photographs on its website this week.
ASTERIA is a miniaturized satellite composed of six cubic units measuring 4.5 inches of each size. Most of the time, ASTERIA is far from the Earth, looking for extraterrestrial worlds in the Milky Way, far beyond our own solar system. But in March, the CubeSat brought his camera to the City of Angels.
Recently released photos reveal Los Angeles' network of streets and highways – a multitude of highways – shining through the night.
The night ASTERIA took the picture, the hometown Dodgers played the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dodger stadium is visible in the image, a bright spot in the center of the photo.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where ASTERIA was designed and built in Pasadena, is visible in the upper right quadrant of the photo, just below the darkness of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Last year, ASTERIA has passed numerous tests proving its exceptional pointing stability. Currently, the miniaturized satellite scans the sky in search of exoplanets.
ASTERIA is designed to hunt planets using the same strategy as Kepler and NASA's last aircraft fighter, TESS. The CubeSat records images of bright stars resembling the sun. These observations are then analyzed for traces of periodic obscuration, the signature created by the exoplanets in orbit as they move on the face of their host star.
"The prolonged [ASTERIA] The mission also provides long-term validation of hardware and software for use in future projects, "according to NASA.
[ad_2]
Source link