Landolt Space Mission

Category: Mission Updates

Press Release: George Mason University announces its first NASA Space Mission which seeks to uncover the secrets of dark energy

Peter Plavchan, Associate Professor and Observatory Director, College of Science. Photo by: Ron Aira/Creative Services/ George Mason University

George Mason University will be the home of the $19.5 million recently approved Landolt NASA Space Mission that will put an artificial “star” in orbit around the Earth.  This artificial star will allow scientists to calibrate telescopes and more accurately measure the brightness of stars ranging from those nearby to the distant explosions of supernova in far-off galaxies. By establishing absolute flux calibration, the mission will begin to address several open challenges in astrophysics including the speed and acceleration of the universe expansion.

View full press release.

Landolt Mission named in honor of renowned astronomer Arlo Landolt

Arlo Landolt, Ball Family Professor Emeritus of Physics & Astronomy
Arlo Landolt, Ball Family Professor Emeritus of Physics & Astronomy
Arlo Landolt, Ball Family Professor Emeritus of Physics & Astronomy
Arlo Landolt, Ball Family Professor Emeritus of Physics & Astronomy

The Landolt Space Mission is named for late astronomer Arlo Landolt, one of the most recognizable American astronomers. Renowned throughout the astronomical community for his discoveries, astronomers and physicists worldwide continue to use his series of papers which established the “Landolt Photometric Standard Star Catalog” and his standard stars are among the most heavily used photometric standards throughout the globe.

Landolt was the first discoverer of a pulsating white dwarf, when he observed in 1965 and 1966 that the luminosity of HL Tau 76 varied with a period of approximately 12.5 minutes. 

Landolt was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020, was bestowed the 2015 Leslie C. Peltier Award from the Astronomical League, and received the George van Biesbroeck Prize from AAS in 1995, which honors a living individual for long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy, often beyond the requirements of his or her paid position.

Landolt’s research was concerned with the measurement of stellar brightness and colors, i.e., stellar photometry. In the last 30 years, much of his time was spent in the improvement and the definition of photometric standard stars. These standard stars are used as calibration yardsticks when studying celestial objects, or indeed any objects projected against the celestial sphere, whose characteristics are unknown. For the case of physical celestial objects, one eventually can relate brightness and color measures to a variety of physical characteristics. These quantities in turn help determine stellar distance, and define a star’s place in stellar evolution. Research projects also are under way in the areas of star clusters, variable stars, novae, supernovae, and eclipsing binaries.

Read the full Memoriam of Arlo Landolt: LSU Mourns the Loss of World-Renowned Astronomer Arlo U. Landolt