NASA will announce an exciting new discovery about the Moon from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, at a media teleconference at 9 a.m. PDT Monday, Oct. 26. Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website.
Following the teleconference, members of the media are invited to interview Naseem Rangwala, SOFIA project scientist, of NASA’s Ames Research Center.
This new discovery contributes to NASA’s efforts to learn about the Moon in support of deep space exploration. Under the Artemis program, NASA will send the first woman and next man to the lunar surface to prepare for our next giant leap – human exploration of Mars as early as the 2030s. Understanding the science of the Moon also helps piece together the broader history of the inner solar system.
Teleconference participants are:
- Paul Hertz, Astrophysics division director at NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
- Casey Honniball, postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
- Naseem Rangwala, project scientist for the SOFIA mission, NASA’s Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, California
To participate in the teleconference, members of the news media should contact Felicia Chou at felicia.chou@nasa.gov by 6 a.m. PDT Monday, Oct. 26, to receive the dial-in information.
Members of the news media who are interested in interviewing Rangwala should submit their requests by 9 a.m. PDT Monday, Oct. 26, by contacting the Ames newsroom at: arc-dl-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov. Video resources will be made available upon request.
As the world’s largest airborne observatory, SOFIA is a modified 747 that flies high in the atmosphere to provide its nearly 9-foot telescope with a clear view of the universe and objects in our solar system. Flying above 99% of the atmosphere’s obscuring water vapor, SOFIA observes in infrared wavelengths and can pick up phenomena impossible to see with visible light.
For more information about the SOFIA mission, visit:
For more information about NASA’s Artemis program, visit:
-end-
Alison Hawkes
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, California
650-604-4789
alison.hawkes@nasa.gov
Darryl Waller
Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley, California
650-604-4789
darryl.e.waller@nasa.gov
To receive local NASA Ames news, email local-reporters-request@lists.arc.nasa.gov with “subscribe” in the subject line. To unsubscribe, email the same address with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.