The CUTE Small Satellite Mission

Exoplanets in short-period orbits provide a unique opportunity to observe phenomena critical to the development and evolution of our own solar system, including atmospheric escape, interaction with the host star, and the potential to study exoplanetary magnetism. I will present the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE), a 6U CubeSat mission that aims at studying the physics of atmospheric escape and possibly detect the presence of magnetic fields on exoplanets. CUTE will be launched in mid-2020 and its flexible observing plan allows for coordinated UV-optical-infrared observations of particularly interesting bright targets with a number of current and future facilities.