NASA's smallest exoplanet-hunting satellite, the CubeSat ASTERIA, recently captured photographs of Los Angeles from 250 miles above Earth's surface. The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory published the photographs on its website this week.

ASTERIA, short for Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics, is a miniaturized satellite made up of six cubed units measuring 4.5 inches on each size. Most of the time, ASTERIA is pointed away from Earth, searching for alien worlds in the Milky Way, far beyond our own solar system. But in March, the CubeSat trained its camera on the City of Angels.

The newly published photos reveal Los Angeles' grid of city streets and freeways -- lots and lots of freeways -- glowing in the night.

On the evening that ASTERIA snapped the photograph, the hometown Dodgers were playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. Dodger Stadium can be seen in the image, a bright spot at the center of the photo.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where ASTERIA was designed and built, in Pasadena, seen in the top right quadrant of the photo, just below the darkness of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Last year, ASTERIA passed a number of tests proving its exceptional pointing stability. Currently, the miniaturized satellite is scanning the skies in search of exoplanets.

ASTERIA is designed to hunt for planets using the same strategy as Kepler and NASA's newest plane-hunter, TESS. The CubeSat records images of bright Sun-like stars. These observations are then analyzed for evidence of periodic dimming, the signature created by orbiting exoplanets as they move across the face of their host star.

"The extended [ASTERIA] mission also provides long-term validation of hardware and software for use on future projects," according to NASA.

Related Links
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Arianespace to launch ESAIL satellite for exactEarth on Vega SSMS POC flight
Evry, France (SPX) May 10, 2019
Arianespace reports it has been selected by exactEarth to launch the ESAIL satellite using a Vega as part of the launcher's Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) Proof of Concept (POC) flight. It is the final contract signed by Arianespace for this POC flight, which is now completely booked with 42 payloads onboard. The ESAIL satellite will be launched in a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 515 km. on a Vega SSMS rideshare flight in 2019 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spacepo ... read more