Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Watch NASA’s big press event about the moon right here

Georgina Torbet
By
NASA Live: New Science Results from NASA’s SOFIA (Oct. 26, 2020)

NASA has a big announcement to make tomorrow, with the agency saying it will share an “exciting new discovery” about the moon which “contributes to NASA’s efforts to learn about the moon in support of deep space exploration.” If that piques your curiosity, we’ve got the details on how you can follow the announcement live.

Recommended Videos

How to watch the announcement

NASA will stream audio of the announcement made by the Astrophysics division director and the chief exploration scientist for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate plus two researchers on Monday, October 26 at 9 a.m. PT.

To listen to the announcement, you can tune in using the video embedded at the top of this page or by going to the NASA Live website.

What to expect from the announcement

NASA’s SOFIA airborne observatory is shadowed by a NASA F/A-18 safety chase aircraft during its second checkout flight near Waco, Texas on May 10, 2007. NASA

One thing we know about the discovery is that it was made using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a flying observatory on board a modified Boeing 747 aircraft. SOFIA has previously made discoveries about stellar winds and star formation, investigated a stellar nursery, and probed the origin of water on Earth. As it is based in an aircraft, SOFIA can fly above 99% of the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere which usually interferes with ground-based measurements. That means it can collect more accurate data to see further into the cosmos.

There aren’t any further details of what to expect about the discovery yet, but despite it being over 50 years since we landed on the moon, there’s still a whole lot we don’t know about our neighboring body. One big area of interest is the existence and location of water on the moon, particularly ice around its poles, as this could be a valuable resource for supporting future crewed moon missions like NASA’s upcoming Artemis mission. Water is needed for the creation of rocket fuel as well as providing astronauts with something to drink, and it will be hunted out by NASA’s new lunar rover, VIPER.

Other topics of interest for human exploration of the moon include radiation levels there and how these can be mitigated, and examining moon dust and rocks, both for scientific interest and because moon dust is tricky stuff which can cause engineering problems. Another ongoing question is what the best way to design and build a long-term moon base is.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
NASA’s observatory in an airplane, SOFIA, takes its last flight
NASA's SOFIA observatory in the air.

Since 2014, a very special airplane has been helping astronomers peer out beyond Earth's atmosphere. NASA's SOFIA, or Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is an observatory fit into a modified Boeing 747 that has been operating for the past eight years. Now, it has taken its last flight and will be retiring from service.

The concept of SOFIA was to place a telescope into an airplane so it could fly above the majority of the water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere. This water vapor interferes with readings, so being above it allowed SOFIA to see further and with greater accuracy. The concept worked well and SOFIA contributed to a range of astronomical discoveries, however, earlier this year NASA announced it would be retiring the project. The costs of maintaining and running the observatory meant it was not a good value proposition in terms of the amount of research gained per dollar spent when compared to other telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope.

Read more
How to watch NASA launch its mega moon rocket on Saturday
NASA's SLS rocket on its way to the launchpad.

NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV

[UPDATE: NASA scrubbed its first launch attempt on Monday after engineers discovered an issue with one of the rocket's engines shortly before launch. It's now aiming to launch on Saturday, September 3 -- details below]

Read more
NASA needs good weather for Saturday’s moon launch, here’s how it’s looking
NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft on the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center.

Following a meeting among mission managers on Thursday evening, NASA confirmed it’s still on for this weekend’s second try at launching the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the agency's most powerful rocket to date.

In a mission set to usher in a new era of space exploration, the SLS is scheduled to lift off from Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday afternoon, propelling an uncrewed Orion spacecraft toward the moon where it’ll perform a fly-by before returning to Earth in mid-October.

Read more