US EditionPublished • loading... • Updated
NASA to Launch Pandora Satellite to Search for Alien Life
Pandora, a 716-pound satellite costing $20 million, will study 20 exoplanets to analyze atmospheric chemistry and separate stellar signals for life condition assessment.
- On Feb. 10, NASA announced it had chosen SpaceX under its VADR contract to launch the Pandora small satellite.
- The Pandora mission will focus on separating star and planet signals to improve atmospheric readings, co-led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA Goddard after recently passing NASA's critical design review.
- Weighing 716 lbs and carrying a 45-centimetre telescope, Pandora will study signals from 20 hand-selected stars and their 39 exoplanets, observing each target 10 times for 24 hours during its one-year primary mission.
- Scheduled for launch some time in the fourth quarter of 2025, Pandora's timing slipped due to a 43-day government shutdown and will lift off from Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 to low Earth orbit.
- At about $20 million, Pandora delivers deep, repeated observations at a fraction of the cost of flagship telescopes, enhancing James Webb Space Telescope and Habitable Worlds Observatory science while the team plans an extended mission proposal if results allow.
Insights by Ground AI
18 Articles
18 Articles
JWST spots a lemon-shaped exoplanet orbiting a pulsar — rewriting the rules of planet formation
Surprised astronomers just discovered a world that blurs the line between planet and stellar remnant, hiding in a system known as a “black widow.” Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, researchers at the University of Chicago, Stanford University and the Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington studied a Jupiter-mass companion circling a millisecond pulsar, PSR J2322–2650. What they found was a chemical outlier, with an atmosphere …
SpaceX to Provide Launch Services for NASA's Pandora Mission - SPACE & DEFENSE
NASA has selected SpaceX to provide the launch service for the agency's Pandora mission, which will study at least 20 known exoplanets and their host stars to find out how changes in stars affect observations of exoplanet atmospheres.
Coverage Details
Total News Sources18
Leaning Left0Leaning Right0Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution100% Center
Bias Distribution
- 100% of the sources are Center
100% Center
C 100%
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
