Launch of a French nanosatellite to solve the Beta Pictoris mysteries

The Indian space launcher PSLV will take off on January 12th 2018 at 4h58 (French civil time), to orbit PicSat. This satellite is about as big as three apples, or rather as three 10cm size cubes of which it is composed. It is no heavier than a cat (3,5 kg). Its consumes about 5 W, which is equivalent to that of a low consumption electric bulb. And its telescope is only five cm in diameter. Nevertheless, this nanosatellite will lead to a better understanding of the Beta Pictoris system.

To understand the formation of giant planets

The Beta Pictoris disc, the relic of the original cloud which gave birth to the star, constitutes a rare opportunity for all astronomer : a better understanding of Beta Pictoris will lead to a better understanding of how giant planets, and more generally planetary systems, are formed.

A stellar system extremely young

Beta Pictoris is only 63,4 light years from us, and is very bright, which makes it easy to study. A very young star, only 23 million years old, it fascinates the scientists ever since the discovery of a surrounding large gas and dusty debris ring, followed by the discovery of a giant gas planet called Beta Pictoris b.

In fact, as seen from the Earth, the exoplanet could transit its star around before the summer of 2018.

In order to observe such an exoplanet transit, only a nanosatellite could have been developed in such a short period of time. PicSat was designed and built in just three years, thanks to the use of a basic cubical module “CubeSat”, a structure designed in the USA for student projects.

A new approach for instrumentation

In the case of the Paris Observatory and the CNRS, this constitutes the very first satellite completely designed and integrated "intra-muros". PicSat is the fruit of an idea of Sylvestre Lacour, a CNRS astrophysicist, working together with Alain Lecavelier des Etangs, from the Paris Institute for Astrophysics, who has been studying the Beta Pictoris for many years. Sylvestre Lacour has realized the project in his laboratory, the Lesia, working with a small team of scientists and engineers. This is the precursor of a new approach for instrumentation for French space research. The technological developments were done within the framework of the space pole C^2ERES of the PSL university, on the site of the Paris Observatory at Meudon. Financed essentially by the European Research Council, the PicSat project also benefits from the support of the CNES, the LabEx ESEP and of the FONDATION MERAC.

PicSat will be injected into a polar orbit at an altitude of 505 km, at the same time as thirty other satellites. PicSat will then be handled from the Paris Observatory. To ensure uninterrupted reception of the signals from the satellite, the PicSat team is inviting the collaboration of radio amateurs for the transmission and reception of the data using the internet link, PicSat.obspm.fr.

The press release

Un nanosatellite français pour percer les mystères de Beta Pictoris

To know more :

• http://PicSat.obspm.fr
• see the launch in real time : http://webcast.gov.in/live/
• YouTube PicSat : https://goo.gl/VhdjAP
• Site Flickr PicSat (photos of the satellite, the team etc.) : https://www.flickr.com/people/PicSat/
• PicSat information file about the Beta Pictoris planetary system :
  https://www.flickr.com/photos/PicSat/27136602019/