The MOST Asteroseismology Mission: Ultraprecise Photometry from Space

ABSTRACT The Microvariablity and Oscillations of Stars (MOST) mission is a low‐cost microsatellite designed to detect low‐degree acoustic oscillations (periods of minutes) with micromagnitude precision in solar‐type stars and metal‐poor subdwarfs. There are also plans to detect light reflected from giant, short‐period, extrasolar planets and the oscillations of roAp stars and the turbulent variability in the dense winds of Wolf‐Rayet stars. This paper describes the experiment and how we met the challenge of ultraprecise photometry despite severe constraints on the mass, volume, and power available for the instrument. A side‐viewing, 150 mm aperture Rumak‐Maksutov telescope feeds two frame‐transfer CCDs, one for tracking and the other for science. There is a single 300 nm wide filter centered at 525 nm. Microlenses project Fabry images of the brighter ( \documentclass{aastex} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{pifont} \usepackage...