Podcast Extra – The Twinkle Space Mission

This podcast extra is all about our favourite topic of them all, exoplanets. Thanks to our good friends Ian and Billy, we'll be taking a look at the very exciting upcoming low-Earth orbit space mission Twinkle. This small satellite will help us better understand the chemical composition of known exoplanets, which in turn will help us understand their history - and even their weather!

Guests:

Ian Stotesbury - master of astrophysics and lead systems engineer at Blue Skies Space. Ian has a background in low Earth orbit Earth monitoring missions and constellations, but is now making the leap to other planets.

Dr Billy Edwards - gained his PhD in Astrophysics from UCL, specialising in observing exoplanet atmospheres with space based telescopes. He's stayed on at UCL and is now a project scientist for the Twinkle Space Mission.

In this podcast extra, we discuss:

• The origin of the Twinkle Space Mission and Blue Skies Space, the company behind the satellite, including an enlightening discussion on why some space missions are chosen, and why some seem to just always miss out.
• Twinkle's unique science instruments (including an astonishingly wide wavelength range), exoplanet science goals, and surprising but very carefully considered size.
• Twinkle's construction and launch window
• Ian and Billy's wildest hopes and dreams for Twinkle observations (including Uranus and Neptune!!) and future follow-up missions
• An invitation for YOU to join in with the ExoClock mission. Help professional astronomers monitor transiting exoplanets!