On Thursday, April 13 at 2 p.m. EDT, NASA will be discussing new findings about ocean worlds in our solar system. It’s not exactly certain what this new discovery is. NASA’s title for the announcement is “NASA to Reveal New Discoveries in News Conference on Oceans Beyond Earth”, so for now we’ll have to speculate on what those new discoveries may be. Could it be life in an ocean world abroad?
Could it be a deeper view into a planet that we already believe may harbour life, such as Proxima-B? Or could it be a new alien megastructure.
Make sure to come back to the site as we’ll have the live stream for you on Thursday. Below you can find the official statement from NASA.From NASA:
NASA will discuss new results about ocean worlds in our solar system from the agency’s Cassini spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope during a news briefing 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, April 13. The event, to be held at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington, will include remote participation from experts across the country.
The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
These new discoveries will help inform future ocean world exploration — including NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission planned for launch in the 2020s — and the broader search for life beyond Earth.
The news briefing participants will be:
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters
Mary Voytek, astrobiology senior scientist at NASA Headquarters
Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
Hunter Waite, Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer team lead at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio
Chris Glein, Cassini INMS team associate at SwRI
William Sparks, astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore
A question-and-answer session will take place during the event with reporters on site and by phone. Members of the public also can ask questions during the briefing using #AskNASA.
