<\/p>\n You can watch it live via SpaceX’s website<\/a> or X account; coverage will begin about 15 minutes before launch.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n During its yearlong orbital mission, the 716-pound (325 kilograms) Pandora will study at least 20 known exoplanets using a 17-inch-wide (45 centimeters) telescope, which it will train on the worlds as they “transit,” or cross the face of, their host stars from the satellite’s perspective.<\/p>\n Such transits cause a small dip in the host star’s brightness, which exoplanet hunters have used to great advantage: Most of the more than 6,000 alien planets<\/a> we know of have been discovered via the “transit method.”<\/p>\n Transits also allow astronomers to characterize known exoplanets, especially their atmospheres. Different elements and molecules absorb light at specific wavelengths, so studying the spectrum of starlight that has passed through an atmosphere can reveal a great deal about that atmosphere’s composition<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, such work is complicated by stellar complexity. Star surfaces are not uniform; they often feature patches of varying brightness, like the sunspots<\/a> that speckle our own star. Pandora will help astronomers account for such complexity, if all goes to plan.<\/p>\n “Pandora aims to disentangle the star and planet spectra by monitoring the brightness of the exoplanet’s host star in visible light while simultaneously collecting infrared data,” NASA officials wrote in a mission description<\/a>. “Together, these multiwavelength observations will provide constraints on the star’s spot coverage to separate the star’s spectrum from the planet’s.”<\/p>\n \n
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