Source : WAM
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying roughly 40 payloads, including NASA’s Pandora exoplanet satellite, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 11 January.
Pandora, weighing 716 pounds (325 kilograms), will embark on a yearlong orbital mission to study at least 20 known exoplanets using a 17-inch (45-centimetre) telescope. The satellite will observe these worlds as they “transit,” or pass in front of, their host stars from its vantage point.
Transits allow astronomers to analyse known exoplanets, particularly their atmospheres. Since different molecules and elements absorb light at specific wavelengths, examining the spectrum of starlight that passes through an atmosphere can reveal detailed information about its composition.
“Pandora aims to disentangle the star and planet spectra by monitoring the brightness of the exoplanet’s host star in visible light while simultaneously collecting infrared data,” NASA officials wrote in a mission description. “Together, these multiwavelength observations will provide constraints on the star’s spot coverage to separate the star’s spectrum from the planet’s.”
The mission will concentrate on planets with atmospheres dominated by water or hydrogen.
