Twinkle is a small mission with big ambitions. Designed to reveal the chemical composition, weather and history of planets orbiting distant stars, it will involve building and launching a space telescope before 2019.
Twinkle is an independent mission proposed by UK scientists and engineers. It will be built in the UK, and this month it passed a key design milestone.
A study has shown that the scientific instruments needed to analyse hundreds of far-off planets can be built with “off-the-shelf” components already developed for up-coming European Space Agency missions. This means the costs will be less, as no research and development needs to be undertaken.
Twinkle will be constructed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) of Guildford, using an existing spacecraft design. The science instruments, which are being developed by University College London, will weigh no more than 100kg and be about the size of a domestic water boiler.
Measuring both light and infrared radiation, Twinkle will be the first mission to analyse the atmospheres of distant worlds. These gases hold clues about how planets formed and subsequently evolved.
At present, all that astronomers can reliably determine is the mass, size and density of planets around other stars. But by looking for changes in the light coming from the planets, Twinkle should be able to detect cloud patterns on these distant worlds.
The scientists and engineers behind the mission now aim to raise £50m from a combination of public and private sources to build and launch the spacecraft.
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