POET Mission: Finding Planets Around Ultracool Stars

Canada’s upcoming POET micro-satellite mission, set for a 2029 launch, aims to detect Earth-sized and super-Earth planets orbiting ultracool dwarf stars using transit photometry.

By monitoring tiny dips in starlight, the mission will scan a curated list of over 3,000 nearby stars, leveraging a larger telescope and a wide wavelength range from ultraviolet to infrared.

The goal is to identify habitable-zone candidates that can later be studied for atmospheric biosignatures with the James Webb Space Telescope, advancing the search for potentially life-supporting worlds.

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