NASA selected four astronomical research missions to explore the collision of volatile stars, galaxies and celestial bodies
Science and Technology Daily (Reporter Liu Xia) According to NASA's official website, NASA recently selected four missions to carry out further exploration, study celestial collision events and debris left behind, and monitor the flare emitted by nearby stars How to influence the atmosphere of detouring planets, etc., to reveal the mysteries of the universe in more depth.
NASA plans to select two of these missions in 2021 and list them under the "Explorer Program". The selected missions will be launched in 2025.
These four tasks include two "SMEX" tasks and two "opportunity tasks (MO)". In addition to the launch cost, the cost caps for SMEX and MO missions are US $ 145 million and US $ 75 million, respectively.
The two SMEX missions are "the Atmospheric Physics and Evolution Characterization Mission of Extreme Ultraviolet Stars (ESCAPE)" and "Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI)". Each mission will receive $ 2 million in funding for a 9-month period. Concept research.
ESCAPE will study nearby stars, observe the fast and intense ultraviolet flares emitted by them, and determine the probability that these flares will strip the rocky planetary atmosphere around the stars, and this will affect the planetary environment. Wen Frans. COSI will scan the Milky Way, measure the gamma rays emitted by radioactive elements during the star explosion, and map the history of star death and element generation. It will also measure polarization and enhance our understanding of how distant high-energy cosmic bursts produce gamma rays. The mission's principal researcher is John Tomsk of the University of California, Berkeley.
The two MO missions are the "Gravity Wave UV Corresponding Imager Mission (GUCIM)" and "Large Area Explosive Polarimeter (LEAP)". Each proposal will receive US $ 500,000 in funding for a nine-month concept study.
GUCIM will be composed of two independent small satellites, each scanning the sky with different ultraviolet bands, detecting two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole and generating light emitted by hot gas in the explosion of gravitational waves. The mission will map the sky under ultraviolet light to find other bright objects, such as exploding stars, etc. The chief researcher of the mission is Stephen Cenko of Goddard Space Flight Center. LEAP will be installed on the International Space Station to study the high-energy jets emitted during the merging of celestial bodies such as the death of giant stars or neutron stars. The principal researcher is Mark McConnell of the University of New Hampshire.