UMass Lowell-Designed Telescope Launched To Explore Celestial Objects And Discover New Planets
NASA's recent launch of a UMass Lowell-designed telescope marked a significant milestone in the quest to discover new planets and celestial objects. The Lowell Sun reported on this development, providing insight into the mission. The telescope, dubbed "PICTURE-D," was launched from the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on October 1. It was tethered to a massive helium balloon, approximately 39 million cubic feet in size, equivalent to a football field.
At 11:40 a. m. ET, the balloon lifted the 1,500-pound, 14-feet-long, and 4-feet-wide device to the edge of the atmosphere, about 120,000 feet high. There, it collected images of the cosmos for researchers at UMass Lowell's Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology (LoCCST) to analyze. The PICTURE-D instrument features a specialized imaging and optical control system, built by a research team from LoCCST and the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. This system enables the production of stable still images by blocking light, allowing the device to capture pictures of objects close to stars.
According to Michael Mendillo, the team hopes to capture images of planetary systems beyond the solar ← →
LOWELL — NASA recently launched a telescope designed and built by UMass Lowell and the space agency that seeks to identify planets beyond the solar ...Other related sources and context: Check here
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