Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Bright Target Explorer (BRITE)
Bright Target Explorer (BRITE)
The Bright Target Explorer is a programme that develops tiny space telescopes to observe the brightest stars (including those that make up well-known constellations like Orion) from the earth's perspective. The mini spacecraft measure less than 8 inches (20 centimeters) wide and weigh less than 15.5 pounds (7 kilograms) and are sent into orbits above the earth atmosphere.
Designed by the Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), BRITE demonstrates that nanosatellites are capable of performance once thought impossible for such small spacecraft. Since nanosatellites can only fit small telescopes, they can't capture amazing high-resolution images of the cosmos. But they are able to observe and record changes in a star's brightness over time. Such observations help scientists find spots on the star, an orbiting planet or secondary star, or starquakes caused by oscillations within the star itself.
By keeping the BRITE satellites small, they can be built faster and at a lower cost than their larger counterparts, and be launched as a piggyback payload on rockets carrying larger spacecraft.
- Part of Speech: proper noun
- Synonym(s):
- Blossary:
- Industry/Domain: Aerospace
- Category: Satellites
- Company:
- Product:
- Acronym-Abbreviation:
Other Languages:
Member comments
Terms in the News
Featured Terms
Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist best known as one of the original correspondents for the TV Magazine 60 Minutes ...
Contributor
Featured blossaries
Browers Terms By Category
- Cooking(3691)
- Fish, poultry, & meat(288)
- Spices(36)
Culinary arts(4015) Terms
- Material physics(1710)
- Metallurgy(891)
- Corrosion engineering(646)
- Magnetics(82)
- Impact testing(1)
Materials science(3330) Terms
- Industrial automation(1051)
Automation(1051) Terms
- Fiction(910)
- General literature(746)
- Poetry(598)
- Chilldren's literature(212)
- Bestsellers(135)
- Novels(127)
Literature(3109) Terms
- Inorganic pigments(45)
- Inorganic salts(2)
- Phosphates(1)
- Oxides(1)
- Inorganic acids(1)