"The 13-month Pandora Mission will attempt to capture the atmospheric conditions of 20 planets as they eclipse their respective suns, an effort to aid the James Webb Space Telescope's photographing of planets orbiting vibrant, young stars. The Pandora team is hoping to find biosignatures chemicals that can only be produced by a living organism such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and methane"
"But data gathered in the project could help answer some of humanity's biggest questions. Are we alone? How do we search for life? McGill said. To detect something like a biosignature, or to look for life, you need to really have a good measurement of the atmosphere of your exoplanet. And to do that, you need to understand the star."
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA will launch the Pandora satellite in January to observe atmospheric conditions of 20 exoplanets over a 13-month mission. Pandora will record planetary atmospheres during transits to assist the James Webb Space Telescope's imaging of planets orbiting young, active stars. The project aims to detect biosignatures such as oxygen, carbon dioxide and methane, though the probability of finding those gases is extremely low. Accurate detection requires precise atmospheric measurements and thorough characterization of each host star to remove solar contamination. Pandora inaugurates NASA's Pioneers Program extension and targets planets up to 100 light years away.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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