NASA’s Pandora telescope launched successfully on January 11, 2026, marking a significant advance in the ongoing quest to find habitable planets beyond our solar system. This mission directly addresses a critical limitation in current exoplanet research – the interference of stellar activity on atmospheric measurements.
The Challenge of Exoplanet Observation
Studying planets orbiting distant stars (exoplanets) is exceptionally difficult. These worlds appear as faint specks of light next to their far brighter host stars, making accurate observation a major challenge. Astronomers rely on transit spectroscopy – analyzing starlight filtered through an exoplanet’s atmosphere as it passes in front of its star – to detect the presence of water, hydrogen, or other potential biosignatures. This method is akin to examining wine through a candle flame; the light quality reveals details, but flickering interference obscures the true result.
The Transit Light Source Effect: A Hidden Problem
For years, astronomers assumed transit spectroscopy provided clean data. However, research beginning in 2007 revealed that starspots – cooler, active regions on stars – and other stellar phenomena can distort these measurements. In 2018 and 2019, studies led by Dr. Benjamin Rackham, astrophysicist Mark Giampapa, and the author, identified what they termed the “transit light source effect” – a significant source of noise that can misrepresent atmospheric readings. Some stars even contain water vapor in their upper layers, further complicating the analysis.
These findings were published three years before the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched, with researchers warning that stellar contamination could limit JWST’s full potential. The analogy was clear: attempting to assess planetary atmospheres under flickering, unstable stellar conditions would yield unreliable results.
Pandora: A Focused Solution
Pandora is designed to solve this problem. Unlike JWST, which conducts infrequent observations of the same planets, Pandora will conduct long-duration, repeated monitoring of target stars. By observing stars for up to 24 hours at a time, using both visible and infrared cameras, it will meticulously track changes in stellar brightness and activity. Pandora will revisit each target star ten times over a year, spending over 200 hours on each one.
This strategy allows scientists to account for stellar contamination in transit measurements. By combining Pandora’s data with JWST’s, researchers can refine atmospheric analyses and achieve greater accuracy in the search for habitable worlds.
Rapid Development and Cost-Effectiveness
Pandora broke with NASA’s traditional development model. It was proposed and built faster and at a lower cost by keeping the mission simple and accepting calculated risks. The rapid development was spurred by a 2018 request from NASA Goddard scientists Elisa Quintana and Tom Barclay, who recognized the urgency of tackling stellar contamination before JWST’s full operational phase.
Looking Ahead
Following successful launch, Pandora is now in orbit, undergoing thorough testing by Blue Canyon Technologies. Control will soon transition to the University of Arizona’s Multi-Mission Operation Center, where the real science begins.
Pandora’s sustained observations will provide a stable, reliable view of exoplanet atmospheres, pushing the boundaries of our ability to detect potential life-supporting environments in the universe.
This mission represents a critical step forward in exoplanet research, ensuring that future discoveries are grounded in accurate, uncontaminated data.
