Telescope built in ASU classroom launches aboard SpaceX rocket

TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration recently took part in an exciting mission. The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying technology built in the college's classrooms, is now in space.

What we know:

On Jan. 11, the SpaceX Twilight mission was launched. 

The science mission, carrying SPARCS—a small space telescope—launched from the Space Launch Complex in California. The telescope on the mission was created at the ASU.

"This is a space telescope. It's the size of a large shoe box," said Danny Jacobs, a professor at the ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration. "The telescope is about this big and you can almost fit your fists down the barrel of it, so it’s a small telescope. But it looks at the ultraviolet which is absorbed by the atmosphere. So once we get into space, you can see a wavelength you can't see from the ground."

Big picture view:

Professor Jacobs said the main goal of the mission is to monitor flares and sunspot activity of low-mass stars.

"First of all, we're looking for the stars that are going to impact the exoplanets," Jacobs said. "This is the big question we all have: is there life out there? And are they like us, and we need an atmosphere to breathe and other things? The northern lights are particles that are not hitting you; they are being diverted. So all of those things are needed on exoplanets too, just like ours, but it’s really hard to tell. So we really want to look at the stars and we want to know more about that."

Dig deeper:

Jacobs said this is a big deal for ASU, calling the mission revolutionary.

"SPARCS is supposed to last at least a year," Jacobs said. "It was designed to achieve its success in just about a month or so. We’d really like to see images from the telescope and now operating it from ASU."