"Groundbreaking Discoveries Unveiled by Compact 14-inch Spacecraft on 'Hot Jupiters'"

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE), a small spacecraft the size of a cereal box, has provided precise measurements of the atmospheres of "hot Jupiters" - large, puffy planets that orbit close to their stars. Led by a team from the University of Colorado Boulder, the findings suggest that the process of atmospheric escape from these planets may be more complex than previously thought. The observations from CUTE have revealed that some hot Jupiters are losing their atmospheres while others are not. The mission aims to understand the diversity of planets in the universe and the physical processes operating on them.