BRITE-Constellation Science Operations

BRITE-Constellation Science Operations

R. Kuschnig and the BRITE Team

BRITE-Constellation is a nanosatellite mission designed for stellar astrophysical research in collaboration between Austria, Canada and Poland. A fleet of six spacecrafts was funded, built and launched, two from each country, all designed to perform precise time-series photometry of the brightest stars in the sky. While the spacecrafts have the same basic design, three satellites host an instrument sensitive in a red bandpass, the others, for a blue wavelength range. From the six satellites launched, five are operational. The sixth one did not separate from the upper stage of the rocket and remains idle. The first pair, the Austrian satellites, started to collect science measurements with their wide field (∼24°) cameras in early December 2013. Since then, more than 340 stars were observed during 16 campaigns, the majority for more than 100 days (up to 168 days) continuously. In total, more than 2.1 million measurements have been collected so far. Originally, the limiting magnitude for target stars was set to mag(V) = 4. However, even stars as faint as mag(V) = 6.5 have been observed with sufficient precision. This is a review of science operations conducted during the past 3.5 years.

Proceedings of the Polish Astronomical Society, vol. 5, 15-25 (2017)

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