The Deep Space Telescope’s search for potentially habitable exoplanets will receive star support from a small satellite. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb), a much smaller satellite optimized for observing stellar activity, will get some help in its long-range search for exoplanets. The $8.5 million CubeSat selected by NASA is called the Monitoring Activity with Ultraviolet Imaging and Spectroscopy of Near Stars, or MANTIS.

The two spaceships complement each other. Among its many missions, JWST studies the atmospheres of rocky planets that may harbor life, such as the recent study of an exoplanet in the TRAPPIST-1 system. Meanwhile, MANTIS will be looking at stellar events like flashes after its expected launch in 2026.

The MANTIS spacecraft will look skyward in ultraviolet light, including the most energetic set of wavelengths known as extreme ultraviolet. According to the University of Colorado at Boulder, it will be the first sky survey in this range since NASA’s Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer ceased operations in 2001.

The theory is that rocky exoplanets with surface water could face additional problems if they orbit a very active star, given the amount of radiation such planets would be exposed to. MANTIS aims to provide more data to develop this theory during one year of observations from Earth orbit.

“We’re going to observe all different types of stars, including different masses and ages,” Briana Indahl, a research scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder and principal investigator for the MANTIS mission, said in a statement. “We want to understand how this UV (ultraviolet) light flux from the stars affects the atmospheres of planets and even their habitability.”

MANTIS will carry two telescopes into space: one optimized for low-energy ultraviolet radiation and an extreme ultraviolet observing telescope that has never been flown before.

“For many stars, this is the first time we’ll see what they look like in the extreme ultraviolet,” said David Wilson, a university researcher who leads the mission’s science team. Said.

MANTIS will adapt the technologies of two other university cube satellites: an exoplanet mission called the Colorado Ultraviolet Transition Experiment (CUTE), launched in 2021, and the Supernova Remains and Proxies for the Re-ionization Test Bed Experiment (SPRITE), which will search for stellar remnants. Once the eruptions in 2024 are ready for scientific observations, MANTIS aims to help scientists learn how stellar energy affects the atmospheres of nearby planets, particularly planets close to Earth that may be habitable. Source