- NASA has chosen a new telescope that will help study the Milky Way, the Compton Spectrometer and the Imager
- It will study gamma rays emanating from radioactive atoms to determine where the chemical elements were formed.
- NASA says $145 million mission expected to launch in 2025
NASA has chosen a new telescope that will help study the Milky Way, shed new light on how stars are born and die and what chemical elements make up the Milky Way.
The agency announced late Monday that it has selected the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) to probe the galaxy.
NASA said the mission, which cost about $145 million, should be launched in 2025 Statement.
NASA has chosen a new telescope that will help study the Milky Way, the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (pictured).
It will study gamma rays from radioactive atoms produced by exploding stars to determine where chemical elements formed in the Milky Way.
COSI will study gamma rays from radioactive atoms that are produced when stars explode to help determine where in the galaxy the chemical elements formed.
In addition, COSI will also shed new light into the positron, a subatomic particle that has the same mass as an electron but has a positive charge.
“For more than 60 years, NASA has provided opportunities for inventive, small-scale missions to fill knowledge gaps where we still seek answers,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, said in the statement. ”
‘COSI will answer questions about the origin of chemical elements in our own Milky Way galaxy, which are important elements for the formation of Earth.’
In addition, COSI will also shed new light into the positron, a subatomic particle that has the same mass as the electron but has a positive charge.
The US space agency said it would select a launch provider for COSI (pictured) at a later date
The US space agency said it would choose a launch provider later.
The researchers behind the COSI telescope have spent decades perfecting the technology.
In 2016, he sent a version of the instrument aboard NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon.
The telescope was selected through NASA’s Astrophysics Explorers Program, which received 19 proposals in 2019 and selected four concepts.
The agency said that a panel had selected the COSI after analyzing all the four concepts.
The program is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The news comes as the space agency prepares to launch the Hubble Space Telescope, the $10 billion successor to the James Webb telescope.
JWST, a joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, will orbit 930,000 miles higher than Hubble, which is located 340 miles above Earth.
It will sit at a point in space known as Lagrange point 2 (L2) where the gravitational forces of the Sun and Earth are balanced.
It will focus more on infrared wavelengths rather than visible light.
As well as giving astronomers the ability to see the cosmic dawn (the birth of the first stars 13.5 billion years ago), it will also reveal the atmosphere of distant worlds.
It is to be launched into orbit on an Ariana-5 rocket on December 18, 2021.
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