Pandora: Tuning Up our Data on Exoplanet Atmospheres

Pandora is a small satellite mission designed to study exoplanet atmospheres using transmission spectroscopy. It targets 20 exoplanets and aims to improve our understanding of how stellar light affects measurements of atmospheric composition. The mission is part of NASA's Astrophysics Pioneers program and is expected to provide valuable data on stellar contamination in transmission spectroscopy. The mission is launched in January 2023 and is planned to accumulate 240 hours of pointing time, yielding more than 120 hours of science data once Earth occultations and downlink gaps are accounted for. The mission's telescope, an aluminum Cassegrain instrument 45 centimeters in diameter, works in both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The data will help refine techniques for removing noise in data from telescopes like JWST and Roman. The paper states that Pandora provides unique opportunities to overcome challenges in multi-epoch observations of exoplanet atmospheres, particularly with JWST, where stellar activity and data corrections are critical. The target list includes 19 host stars, one of which is orbited by two of the target worlds. The stars range from M-dwarfs to K-class, and 16 of these planets have been observed previously by JWST, allowing the retrofitting of Pandora measurements onto the JWST spectra. The mission is expected to improve the accuracy and reliability of transmission spectroscopy data for exoplanet atmospheres.

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