The super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e, depicted with its star in this artist's concept, likely has an atmosphere thicker than Earth's.

Haystack’s Mary Knapp and ASTERIA team break record

June 2, 2020
Categories: Geospace , Mary Knapp
Mission breaks record for smallest satellite to detect an exoplanet.
ASTERIA launched from the ISS
ASTERIA was deployed from the International Space Station on November 20, 2017. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Lead ASTERIA project scientist, Haystack’s Mary Knapp, and colleagues on the ASTERIA teams have broken the record for smallest exoplanet-detecting satellite.

ASTERIA was already a first for CubeSats soon after launch, demonstrating proof of concept that small spacecraft can perform high-precision photometry, as reported by MIT News in 2018:

http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-nasa-cubesat-asteria-exoplanet-transit-0815

More on ASTERIA and 55 Cancri e from JPL:

https://jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7670