NASA launches new mission to get the most out of the James Webb Space Telescope

NASA launched the $20 million Pandora satellite to solve a critical problem hampering the James Webb Space Telescope's search for habitable exoplanets - stellar contamination that makes it difficult to distinguish between atmospheric signatures from planets versus their host stars. The refrigerator-sized observatory will monitor 20 preselected exoplanets for a full year, providing crucial data to help scientists confidently identify water vapor and other life-indicating molecules detected by Webb.