Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
Virtual meeting
21 September – 9 October 2020
EPSC Abstracts
Vol.14, EPSC2020-701, 2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-701
Europlanet Science Congress 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Twinkle: a low-Earth orbit, visible and infrared observatory for exoplanet and solar system spectroscopy

Billy Edwards1,2, Marcell Tessenyi1,2, Giorgio Savini1,2, Giovanna Tinetti1,2, Ian Stotesbury1, Richard Archer1, Max Joshua1, Ben Wilcock1, Philip Windred1, and Jonathan Tennyson1,2
Billy Edwards et al.
  • 1Blue Skies Space Ltd., 69 Wilson Street, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (billy@bssl.space)
  • 2University College London, Physics and Astronomy, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (billy.edwards.16@ucl.ac.uk)

The Twinkle Space Mission is a space-based observatory that has been conceived to measure the atmospheric composition of exoplanets, stars and solar system objects. The satellite is based on a high-heritage platform and will carry a 0.45 m telescope with a visible and infrared spectrograph providing simultaneous wavelength coverage from 0.5 - 4.5 μm. The spacecraft will be launched into a Sun-synchronous low-Earth polar orbit and will operate in this highly stable thermal environment for a baseline lifetime of seven years.

Twinkle’s rapid pointing and non-sidereal tracking capabilities will enable the observation of a diverse array of Solar System objects, including asteroids and comets. Twinkle aims to provide a visible and near-infrared spectroscopic population study of asteroids and comets to study their surface composition and monitor activity. Its wavelength coverage and position above the atmosphere will make it particularly well-suited for studying hydration features that are obscured by telluric lines from the ground as well as searching for other spectral signatures such as organics, silicates and CO2.

Twinkle is available for researchers around the globe in two ways:

1) joining its collaborative multi-year survey programme, which will observe hundreds of exoplanets and solar system objects; and

2) accessing dedicated telescope time on the spacecraft, which they can schedule for any combination of science cases.

I will present an overview of Twinkle’s capabilities and discuss the broad range of targets the mission could observe, demonstrating the huge scientific potential of the spacecraft.

How to cite: Edwards, B., Tessenyi, M., Savini, G., Tinetti, G., Stotesbury, I., Archer, R., Joshua, M., Wilcock, B., Windred, P., and Tennyson, J.: Twinkle: a low-Earth orbit, visible and infrared observatory for exoplanet and solar system spectroscopy, Europlanet Science Congress 2020, online, 21 September–9 Oct 2020, EPSC2020-701, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2020-701, 2020