{"id":21594,"date":"2021-10-19T09:17:43","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T03:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=21594"},"modified":"2021-10-19T09:19:31","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T03:34:31","slug":"nasa-selects-gamma-ray-telescope-to-chart-milky-way-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/nasa-selects-gamma-ray-telescope-to-chart-milky-way-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA Selects Gamma-ray Telescope to Chart Milky Way Evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NASA has selected a new space telescope proposal that will study the recent history of star birth, star death, and the formation of chemical elements in the Milky Way. The gamma-ray telescope called the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI),\u00a0<\/strong>is expected to launch in 2025 as NASA\u2019s latest small astrophysics mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA states that its\u00a0Astrophysics Explorers<\/u><\/a>\u00a0Program received 18 telescope proposals in 2019 and selected four for mission concept studies. After a detailed review of these studies by a panel of scientists and engineers, NASA selected COSI to continue into development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor more than 60 years, NASA has provided opportunities for inventive, smaller-scale missions to fill knowledge gaps where we still seek answers,\u201d said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the agency\u2019s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. \u201cCOSI will answer questions about the origin of the chemical elements in our own Milky Way galaxy, the very ingredients critical to the formation of Earth itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
PHOTO: <\/em><\/strong>NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/R. Hurt (SSC\/Caltech)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COSI will study gamma rays from radioactive atoms produced when massive stars exploded to map where chemical elements were formed in the Milky Way. The mission will also probe the mysterious origin of our galaxy\u2019s positrons, also known as antielectrons \u2013 subatomic particles that have the same mass as an electron but a positive charge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“COSI\u2019s principal investigator is John Tomsick at the University of California, Berkeley. The mission will cost approximately $145 million, not including launch costs. NASA will select a launch provider later,” NASA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The COSI team spent decades developing their technology through flights on scientific balloons. In 2016, they sent a version of the gamma-ray instrument<\/u><\/a> aboard NASA\u2019s super pressure balloon, which is designed for long flights and heavy lifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to NASA, Explorers Program is the agency’s oldest continuous program. It provides frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space research relevant to the astrophysics and heliophysics programs. Since the 1958 launch of Explorer 1, which discovered Earth\u2019s radiation belts, the program has launched more than 90 missions. The Cosmic Background Explorer, another NASA Explorer mission, led to a Nobel Prize in 2006 for its principal investigators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the program for the agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA has selected a new space telescope proposal that will study the recent history of star birth, star death, and the formation of chemical elements in the Milky Way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",985,1063,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway-371x400.jpg",371,400,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway-768x829.jpg",750,810,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway-675x728.jpg",675,728,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",985,1063,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",985,1063,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",741,800,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",528,570,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",600,648,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",556,600,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway-760x490.jpg",760,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",640,691,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",89,96,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/milkyway.jpg",150,162,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a> Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}