The BRITE (BRIght Target Explorer) Constellation is a fleet of five nanosatellites whose purposes is to study the brightest stars in the night sky. They take highly precise measurements of the brightness variations of a large number of bright stars. Most of these stars are not just the brightest to your eye, they are among the brightest in energy output of all the stars in our galaxy.
Each satellite has a camera that can study up to a dozen stars at a time for long intervals. Four ground stations receive the data collected by the flotilla of space telescopes. To ensure proper coverage of the slow oscillations of some of these stars, each star is observed for about six months in two different monitoring sessions. They are “laboratories” that help us understand a wide range of astrophysical processes in our universe.
Canada is a partner in BRITE Constellation with Austria (University of Vienna and Graz University of Technology) and Poland (Copernicus Astronomical Center).
