by Register for CNNS Wonder Theory Science Newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific progress and more.
It is a two-for-one cosmic deal. The latest NASA, Spherex space telescope, which should look for the most important ingredients for life on the Milky Way-and a sun-related mission called Punch are on the way to space.
Both missions were canceled on Tuesday by Vandenberg Space Force Base in California together on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 11:10 p.m. ET (8.10 p.m. PT).
The start takes place according to the weather and the integration problems, which as engineers stopped both missions on the rocket and summarized them within a protective bradge, caused a number of delays after the opportunity, which was originally opened on February 28, was opened.
Although the missions have completely different goals, it helps to start punch as a secondary cooperation with Spherex, “more science in the room for less,” said Dr. Nicky Fox, Associate Administrator for the Directorate for NASA Science Mission. And it helps that the missions go to a similar place: a solar synchronous orbit around the poles of the earth, which means that every spaceship lasts the same alignment compared to the sun all year round.
The spherex or the spectrum photometer for the history of the universe, the era of reilonization and the ICES Explorer aims to throw light on how the universe has developed and to find out where the most important ingredients of life have arisen from the cosmos.
Punch or polarimeters to combine the Corona and the heliosphere are examined how the sun affects the solar system. The mission will watch the hot exterior atmosphere of the sun, called Corona, and study sunwind, or the energetic particles that appear in a steady stream from the sun.
Both groundbreaking missions promise to reveal previously invisible and unknown aspects of our solar system and our galaxy.
“These missions cover the full width of science that NASA does every day,” said Dr. Mark Clampin, Deputy Deputy Associate Administrator of the Directorate for NASA Science Mission. “Punch … will examine the sun in detail, while Spherex is a survey that scans the full sky and will observe hundreds of millions of stars. In every minute of the day, the NASA science missions explored the universe in various standards to really help us understand the universe in which we live and to understand the sun that keeps our planet alive. “
The starry matters of life
After the start, Spherex will spend a little more than two years to circle the earth from 650 kilometers (650 kilometers) and collect data to more than 450 million galaxies. The telescope will also examine more than 100 million stars in our galaxy.
The mapping of the distribution of galaxies helps scientists to understand a cosmic phenomenon called inflation, or what the universe has triggered to increase the size by a billion billion times almost immediately after the Big Bang.
The observatory creates a map of the sky in 102 colors of the infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye and ideal for examining stars and galaxies. The telescope divides the infrared light into individual wavelengths like a prism. The different light colors can help scientists to uncover the composition of heavenly objects by isolating their chemical compounds.
“We are the first mission to look at the entire sky in so many colors,” said Jamie Bock, Spherex -Princal Investigator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the NASA and at the California Institute of Technology, both in Pasadena, California. “Whenever astronomers look at the sky in a new way, we can expect discoveries.”
Spherex will also measure the overall light of light, which is emitted by all galaxies, including those that are too far away from other telescopes and weak to offer a wide view of all important light sources throughout the universe.
One of the main goals of Spherex is to search for evidence of water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other ingredients that are required for life that are frozen in the gas and dust clouds that cause planets and stars.
Astronomers in particular strive to look into molecular clouds or huge regions full of gas and dust that can contain newly formed stars. It is likely that these stars are ringed by materials that form the planets. Astronomers believe that ice cream that is connected to small dust grains is where the majority of the water can be found in the universe – and probably where the water caused by the oceans of the earth.
If you state the ingredients for life in our galaxy and its abundance, researchers can determine how they can be included in newly forming planets.
Spherex will behave like a partner for the James Webb Space Telescope. While webb is a targeted telescope, which means that it is observing a small area but is more precise in detail, Spherex is a survey -telescope that quickly observes the sky. Combining the data from both telescopes can combine fine details to the larger image. If SPHEREX captures something of interest, WebB or the Hubble Space Telescope can increase it.
Put on a blow
Punch is a constellation of four small suitcase size that spend the next two years on Earth to watch the sun and the heliosphle, or the sun bladder of the magnetic fields and particles that extend far beyond the orbit from Pluto.
One of the punch satellites can be seen with its solar arrays. – Alex Valdez/Ussf 30. Raumflügel/NASA
Each satellite wears a camera that acts like a synchronized, single, virtual instrument with a largely uninterrupted view of the sun. The cameras are equipped with polarizing filters, similar to the polarized sunglasses that enable them to produce maps of features in the corona and via the solar system.
Together, the four satellites will create global 3D observations, where the outer atmosphere of the sun becomes a sunwind to understand scientists how this process appears. Punch will also see how the Corona and the sun wind affect the rest of the solar system. It will be the first mission to present Corona and Sonnenwind together.
Solar winds and solar storms are responsible for the space weather that can influence the earth, create beautiful Auroras near the poles, but also interfere with the communication satellites and trigger failures of current networks. Measurements collected by Punch help scientists to better understand how solar storms form and develop, which can lead to precise predictions for the time of space if the space weather could affect earth. Punch observes the sun at a crucial time during the solar maximum or the climax of the sun during the 11-year cycle if more torches and solar storms are to occur.
“What we hope will bring punch to humanity is the ability to see for the first time where we live in the solar wind,” said Craig Deforest, main underground for punch at Southwest Research’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado.
Like Spherex and the WebB telescope, Punch can work together with the Parker Solar Sonde of NASA, which was launched in 2018 and recently reached its closest passport for the sun to take up the larger picture and the nearby ed.
“Punch is the latest addition to the NASA fleet, which provides groundbreaking science every day,” said Joe Westlake, director of the Heliophysics department of NASA. “The introduction of this mission as a carpool does its value for the nation by optimizing every pound of the start capacity in order to maximize the scientific return for the costs of a single start.”
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