Camera in Space to Capture the Impossible
In 2013, Satlantis was founded in the United States based on technology created by researchers Rafael Guzman and Bo Zhao of UF’s Department of Astronomy in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Satlantis LLC is located in UF Innovate | Accelerate at The Hub; the Satlantis headquarters is located in Spain.
The team’s task was not an easy one. In recent months, Satlantis has been developing a camera to photograph the dark matter that exists in the universe. In fact, the 300-kilogram satellite carries four complementary high-precision instruments, two of them with infrared radiation. These cameras will observe the structures around small galaxies to study the distribution of this matter, which, by the way, is invisible.
The project is called ARRAKIHS (Analysis of resolved remnants of accreted galaxies as a key tool for halo studies). This is the first scientific mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) coordinated and led by Spain. It also has another peculiarity: “We are used to scientists defining the problem and then consulting with the industry. But in this case, we are hand in hand from the beginning,” explains Juan Tomás Hernani, founder and CEO of Satlantis, the company responsible for the central components of the satellite system – the so-called payload – and the development of the camera.
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