Nasa to announce exciting new discovery about Moon on Monday

 Nasa to announce exciting new discovery about Moon on Monday

Nasa will be announcing some new exciting discovery about the Moon on Monday. It said this new discovery contributes to the efforts to learn about the Moon in support of deep space exploration.

Nasa said it will be sharing some "exciting" new information on the Moon on Monday. (Photo: Nasa)

If you are a science enthusiast or someone who is simply curious to know about the mysteries of universe, there is good news for you. In three days, you are set to get some "exciting" new information about the Moon. In a recent announcement, Nasa said on Monday (October 26), it will be sharing an "exciting new discovery" about the Moon.

This discovery was made using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

Nasa will make this special announcement at a media teleconference at 12 pm EDT on Monday and the audio of the teleconference will stream live on Nasa's website.

Why is this new information on Moon important?

Firstly, in science, anything new is important because it opens doors to new possibilities and enhances our current understanding of things and phenomenon.

In regards to Moon, Monday's announcement is important because Nasa is already working on a human mission to the Moon by 2024.

"This new discovery contributes to Nasa's efforts to learn about the Moon in support of deep space exploration," Nasa said in a statement about Monday's announcement, without elaborating it further.

What is Nasa's human mission to Moon?

Nasa is currently working on its Artemis program under which it will send the "first woman and the next man" to the Moon in 2024.

Besides proving new insights about Moon, the Artemis program is also being seen as a precursor to Nasa's next "giant leap" i.e. sending a human exploratory mission to Mars as early as the 2030s.

"Understanding the science of the Moon also helps piece together the broader history of the inner solar system," Nasa said.

Who will share the new exciting information about Moon?

Nasa has set up a broad panel that will participate in Monday's teleconference and share the new discovery on Moon. The briefing will be conducted by:

  • Paul Hertz, Astrophysics division director at Nasa Headquarters, Washington
  • Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at Nasa Headquarters
  • Casey Honniball, postdoctoral fellow at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
  • Naseem Rangwala, project scientist for the SOFIA mission, Nasa's Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, California

What is SOFIA? How does it observe Moon and universe?

SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) is the world's largest airborne observatory which flies continuously in the upper atmosphere to observe various natural phenomenon.

Design wise, SOFIA basically is a Boeing 747SP jetliner that has been modified to carry a 106-inch diameter telescope. It is a joint project of Nasa and the German Aerospace Center, DLR.

SOFIA flies high in the atmosphere to provide its nearly 9-foot telescope with a clear view of the universe and objects in our solar system.

Since it flying above 99 per cent of the obscuring water vapour in the atmosphere, SOFIA is uniquely positioned to observe in infrared wavelengths and can detect phenomena impossible to see with visible light, Nasa explains.
In its recent observation, SOFIA studied the chemistry that influences the creation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic history.

What did SOFIA discover most recently?

In its latest discovery about the universe, SOFIA provided a new glimpse of the chemistry in the inner region surrounding massive young stars where future planets could begin to form.

The airborne observatory has found "massive quantities of water and organic molecules" in these swirling, disk-shaped clouds, offering new insights into how some of the key ingredients of life get incorporated into planets during the earliest stages of formation, Nasa recently said.

It added that a similar process likely happened during the formation of the Sun and the inner rocky planets of our solar system, including Earth

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