‘Exciting new discovery’! NASA to reveal results of its Moon program on Monday

In a recent blogpost, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has stated that it has an exciting discovery regarding the Moon that it will be sharing on October 26. According to the US-based space agency, the discovery about the Moon has been made via the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) system. On Monday, NASA will be revealing what it has discovered via teleconference that is slated to be held at 12 PM EDT (9.30 PM IST).

NASA said that the new discovery focuses on NASA’s efforts for learning about the Moon as far as its deep space exploration programme is concerned. Therefore, it is likely that the upcoming announcement will be crucial. The space agency said that discovery has come at a time when NASA is already getting ready to send the first woman and the second man to the Moon’s surface under its Artemis program. The trip to the lunar surface will take place in 2024. This is to prepare for the giant leap NASA is planning with the exploration of Mars, which according to NASA is expected to take place in early 2030s. The idea is to understand the science of the Moon in order to focus on the “broader history of the inner solar system.”

The briefing regarding the discovery will be given by Jacob Bleacher who is chief exploration scientist for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters; Paul Hertz- Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters, Washington; Casey Honniball, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland along with Naseem Rangwala, project scientist for the SOFIA mission, NASA’s Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, California.

Meanwhile, NASA noted that the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is the world’s largest airborne observatory which is at 11km above the Earth’s stratosphere. It provides a view of the universe as well as the solar system precisely, which with a telescope used on Earth’s surface may not be able to provide due to hindrance by atmosphere.