Just a few weeks after announcing the discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 system, a planetary system in the Milky Way located approximately 39 light years from Earth, NASA will communicate this Thursday at a press conference on new results concerning the ocean worlds in our own solar system.
The conference will notably discuss the latest data returned by the Cassini probe and the Hubble space telescope which have explored Saturn and its satellites during of the past thirteen years and should shed light on future space exploration missions.
The press conference, broadcast live on NASA Channel and the agency’s website, will be held at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Among the participants will be notably present Thomas Zurbuchenof the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington; Jim Greendirector of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters; Mary VoytekAstrobiology and Principal Investigator at NASA Headquarters; Linda SpilkerCassini Project Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; Chris Glenn, associate of the Cassini team; or William Sparks, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. What beautiful people for, we hope, pretty discoveries.
Also note that a question and answer session will take place during the event with journalists present on site and others by telephone. Members of the public will also be able to tweet questions during the briefing using the hashtag #AskNASA.
But then, what should we expect? Difficult to say as NASA is vague on this press release. Researchers should normally return to the latest data returned by the Cassini probe which has just begun its last last stand in the Saturn system. Why not then some new revelations about Titan, one of its main moons? We should also learn more about the long-awaited Europa Clipper mission. NASA plans to send a probe that will fly over Europe. Almost as large as the Moon, Jupiter’s moon has intrigued astronomers for many years for its potentially habitable environment hidden beneath its icy surface. Containing twice as much water as the Earth, this one hundred kilometer deep ocean could be salty and why not harbor forms of life.
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