NASA's Pandora mission one step closer to probing alien atmospheres, with mission operations based at U of A

Thursday

An artist's concept of the Pandora mission, seen here without the thermal blanketing that will protect the spacecraft, observing a star and its transiting exoplanet.

Pandora, a small satellite mission poised to provide in-depth study of at least 20 known planets orbiting distant stars to determine the composition of their atmospheres cleared an important milestone by completing the spacecraft bus, which acts as the spacecraft's "brains."

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U of A professor brings Hopi perspective to U.S. Bureau of Land Management

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland has appointed University of Arizona's Michael Kotutwa Johnson to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Arizona Resource Advisory Council (RAC). He sees it as an opportunity to foster collaboration.

Large and small galaxies may grow in ways more similar than expected

Galaxies like the Milky Way grow by merging with smaller galaxies over billions of years, unlike dwarf galaxies, which have long been thought to lack the heft to attract mass and grow in the same way. New observations challenge this view, suggesting that even dwarf galaxies can accrete mass from other small galaxies.

'Ghost towns' of the universe: Ultra-faint, rare dwarf galaxies offer clues to the early cosmos

Astronomers have struggled with finding ultra-faint dwarf galaxies far enough from the Milky Way's influence, making these faintest galaxies in the cosmos difficult to study. Three newly discovered dwarf galaxies in an isolated region of space show evidence of star formation being cut short by events in the early universe.