In a major development, NASA has said that it will announce an exciting new discovery about the Moon on October 26 (Monday). The announcement will be made from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) at a media teleconference at 12 pm (EDT) which is 9.30 pm (IST).


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The audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website. This new discovery contributes to NASA’s efforts to learn about the Moon in support of deep space exploration.


NASA tweeted, "Mark your calendars: We will be revealing a new discovery about the surface of the Moon from our airborne SOFIA Telescope observatory, and YOU are invited. Pencil us in for 12pm ET on Monday, Oct. 26!"



Under NASA’s Artemis program, the agency will send the first woman and next man to the lunar surface in 2024 to prepare for the next giant leap--a human exploration of Mars as early as the 2030s. Understanding the science of the Moon also helps piece together the broader history of the inner solar system.


The briefing participants are:


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


As the world’s largest airborne observatory, SOFIA is a modified 747 that 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. Flying above 99 per cent of the atmosphere’s obscuring water vapor, SOFIA observes in infrared wavelengths and can detect phenomena impossible to see with visible light.