NASA's Pandora telescope has been launched into orbit by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, departing from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The mission is designed to provide detailed observations of exoplanets and their host stars, with a specific focus on mitigating stellar interference to improve the accuracy of exoplanet atmospheric characterization. Pandora is the first satellite launched under NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers program.
Launch and Orbit
The Pandora telescope was successfully launched on a Sunday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Following its deployment, NASA confirmed the telescope achieved a Sun-synchronous orbit, where it now circles Earth approximately every 90 minutes.
Mission Overview
Pandora is an orbital observatory developed to complement the capabilities of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in the study of exoplanets—worlds orbiting stars beyond our solar system—and their host stars. Its mission is projected to last one year, during which it is expected to conduct observations of at least 20 exoplanets.
The telescope was developed under an accelerated timeline and at a lower cost than typical NASA missions, prioritizing simplicity and accepting a higher risk profile. It is the inaugural satellite of NASA's Astrophysics Pioneers program, which aims to support astrophysics research at reduced costs while fostering future leaders in space science.
Challenges in Exoplanet Observation
Astronomers typically identify and study exoplanets using the transit method. This involves observing a temporary dip in a star's brightness as a planet passes in front of it from Earth's perspective. By analyzing the starlight filtered through the planet's atmosphere, researchers can detect the presence of substances such as water vapor, hydrogen, and clouds. Approximately 6,000 exoplanets have been discovered to date, with the first confirmed in 1992.
A significant challenge in these observations is the "transit light source effect," also known as stellar contamination. Stellar surfaces feature dynamic regions, including cooler starspots and brighter, magnetically active areas, which can change over time. These stellar features can distort exoplanet measurements, potentially suppressing or magnifying atmospheric signals. Furthermore, some stellar regions may contain the same chemical signatures, like water vapor, that astronomers seek to identify in planetary atmospheres, making it difficult to differentiate their origin. Research from 2018-2019 highlighted that such stellar changes could lead to misinterpretations, such as mistaking stellar water vapor for water vapor within a planetary atmosphere.
Pandora's Specialized Capabilities
While smaller and collecting less light than the James Webb Space Telescope, Pandora offers specialized capabilities to address the problem of stellar interference. Its design incorporates a novel, all-aluminum 17-inch-wide (45-centimeter) telescope, developed jointly by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Corning Specialty Materials in New Hampshire. The near-infrared detector used by Pandora is a spare unit originally developed for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Pandora's strategy involves extensive, repeated observations of both exoplanets and their host stars. It will dedicate over 200 hours to each target star, revisiting them 10 times over its one-year mission. During each observation period, lasting 24 hours, Pandora will monitor subtle changes in the stars' brightness and colors using both visible and infrared cameras. This monitoring will record the formation, evolution, and dissipation of starspots and active stellar regions.
By integrating this comprehensive stellar data with planetary transit observations, the Pandora team aims to determine how changes in host stars influence observed planetary transits. This approach is intended to remove a key source of noise in data, thereby improving the accuracy of exoplanet atmospheric characterization and enhancing the ability to study smaller exoplanets and investigate potential indicators of life.
Current Status
Following its successful launch, Pandora is currently undergoing thorough tests of its spacecraft systems and functions by Blue Canyon Technologies, its primary builder. Control of the spacecraft is anticipated to transfer to the University of Arizona's Multi-Mission Operation Center in Tucson, Arizona, approximately one week after launch, at which point scientific observations are expected to commence.