Misplaced Pages

SISTINE (also known as SISTINE Mission and SISTINE Program) (acronym for "Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet host stars") is a NASA mission designed to study distant stars as a way of finding life on exoplanets.

The technology to be employed is up to 100 times the UV spectroscopic ability of the Hubble Space Telescope. The first test of the mission was launched on a Black Brant 9 rocket, a two-stage sounding rocket, at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, on 11 August 2019. This suborbital rocket can carry a payload of up to 1200 pounds, which, in the case of SISTINE, includes spectrographic equipment capable of covering the far ultra-violet spectral range of 100 to 160 nm, well suited to study strong atomic emission lines associated with the formation temperatures in the atmospheres of low-mass stars, and their effects on the potential atmospheres of exoplanets.

The second launch of SISTINE occurred on 8 November 2021. This launch focused on observing the spectra of Procyon A.

A third launch occurred on 6 July 2022 at 13:47 UTC from the Arnhem Space Centre in Nhulunbuy, Australia, reaching an apogee of 243 km (151 mi). This launch focused on the spectra of Alpha Centauri A and B in the Alpha Centauri system which contains three stars and Proxima Centauri b, the closest exoplanet to the Earth.

The principal investigator of the mission is astronomer Kevin France, Assistant Professor at the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.

See also

• Sounding rocket
• Ultraviolet astronomy
• Ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy

References

1. ^ Hatfield, Miles (2 August 2019). "Shining (Star)light on the Search for Life". NASA. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
2. NASA (2 August 2019). "News Release 2-Aug-2019 - Shining (star)light on the search for life". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
3. France, Kevin; et al. (2016). "The SLICE, CHESS, and SISTINE Ultraviolet Spectrographs: Rocket-borne Instrumentation Supporting Future Astrophysics Missions". Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation. 5 (1): 1640001. arXiv:1512.00881. Bibcode:2016JAI.....540001F. doi:10.1142/S2251171716400018. S2CID 53974074.
4. ^ Staff (2019). "36.333 UG France/University of Colorado - Suborbital Imaging Spectrograph for Transition region Irradiance from Nearby Exoplanet host stars (SISTINE)". NASA. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
5. Hatfield, Miles (8 November 2021). "To Find Life on Other Planets, NASA Rocket Team Looks to the Stars". NASA. Retrieved 7 July 2022.
6. Johnson-Groh, Mara (6 July 2022). "NASA Rockets Launch from Australia to Seek Habitable Star Conditions". NASA. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
7. PBtS (18 December 2017). "428: Dr. Kevin France: Bright Researcher Studying Exoplanets and their Stars and Developing New Astrophysics Technology". PBtS. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
8. France, Kevin (209). "Kevin France - profile". University of Colorado. Retrieved 3 August 2019.

v t e Exoplanets
Planet Definition IAU Planetary science
Main topics	Exoplanet Exoplanet orbital and physical parameters Methods of detecting exoplanets Planetary system Planet-hosting stars
Sizes and types	Terrestrial Carbon planet Coreless planet Desert planet Dwarf planet Hycean planet Ice planet Iron planet (Super-Mercury) Lava planet Ocean world Mega-Earth Sub-Earth Super-Earth Gaseous Eccentric Jupiter Mini-Neptune (Gas dwarf) Helium planet Hot Jupiter Hot Neptune Gas giant Ice giant Super-Jupiter Super-Neptune Super-puff Ultra-hot Jupiter Ultra-hot Neptune Other types Blanet Brown dwarf Chthonian planet Circumbinary planet Circumtriple planet Disrupted planet Double planet Ecumenopolis Eyeball planet Giant planet Mesoplanet Planemo Planet/Brown dwarf boundary Planetesimal Protoplanet Pulsar planet Sub-brown dwarf Sub-Neptune Toroidal planet Ultra-cool dwarf Ultra-short period planet (USP)
Formation and evolution	Accretion Accretion disk Asteroid belt Circumplanetary disk Circumstellar disc Circumstellar envelope Cosmic dust Debris disk Detached object Disrupted planet Excretion disk Exozodiacal dust Extraterrestrial materials Extraterrestrial sample curation Giant-impact hypothesis Gravitational collapse Hills cloud Internal structure Interplanetary dust cloud Interplanetary medium Interplanetary space Interstellar cloud Interstellar dust Interstellar medium Interstellar space Kuiper belt List of interstellar and circumstellar molecules Merging stars Molecular cloud Nebular hypothesis Oort cloud Outer space Planetary migration Planetary system Planetesimal Planet formation Protoplanetary disk Ring system Rubble pile Sample-return mission Scattered disc Star formation
Systems	Exocomet Interstellar Exomoon Tidally detached Rogue planet Orbits Retrograde Trojan Mean-motion resonances Titius–Bode law
Host stars	A B Binary star Brown dwarfs F/Yellow-white dwarfs G/Yellow dwarfs Herbig Ae/Be K/Orange dwarfs M/Red dwarfs Pulsar Red giant Subdwarf B Subgiant T Tauri White dwarfs Yellow giants
Detection	Astrometry Direct imaging list Microlensing list Polarimetry Timing list Radial velocity list Transit method list Transit-timing variation
Habitability	Astrobiology Astrooceanography Circumstellar habitable zone Earth analog Extraterrestrial liquid water Galactic habitable zone Habitability of binary star systems Habitability of F-type main-sequence star systems Habitability of K-type main-sequence star systems Habitability of natural satellites Habitability of neutron star systems Habitability of red dwarf systems Habitability of yellow dwarf systems Habitable zone for complex life List of potentially habitable exoplanets Tholin Superhabitable planet
Catalogues	Nearby Habitable Systems Exoplanet Data Explorer Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia NASA Exoplanet Archive NASA Star and Exoplanet Database Open Exoplanet Catalogue
Lists	Exoplanetary systems Host stars Multiplanetary systems Stars with proto-planetary discs Exoplanets Discoveries Extremes Firsts Nearest Largest Heaviest Terrestrial candidates Kepler 1–500 501–1000 1001–1500 1501–2000 K2 Potentially habitable Proper names Discovered exoplanets by year before 2000 2000–2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Other	Carl Sagan Institute Exoplanet naming convention Exoplanet phase curves Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer Extragalactic planet Extrasolar planets in fiction Geodynamics of terrestrial exoplanets Neptunian desert Nexus for Exoplanet System Science Planets in globular clusters Small planet radius gap Sudarsky's gas giant classification
Discoveries of exoplanets Search projects

• Astronomy
• Physics
• Space

• Astrobiology
• Astronomical observatories
• Suborbital spaceflight