NASA’s Cereal-Box-Sized CUTE Spacecraft Delivers New Details About “Hot Jupiters”
Artist’s depiction of KELT-9b, a hot Jupiter planet orbiting a star roughly 670 light-years from Earth and a scientific target of the CUTE spacecraft. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterNASA’s CUTE spacecraft, despite its small size, has significantly advanced our knowledge of “hot Jupiters,” revealing varied atmospheric behaviors and contributing to our understanding of planetary evolution, while also offering practical experience for students.A spacecraft the size of a cereal box has collected precise…