These are exciting times we live in! NASA has stated that they will have a live press conference on Wednesday, February 22, at 1pm Eastern Time (2am here in Manila on Thursday,February 23), about a big discovery “beyond our Solar System”.
The agency has kept mum about what their big discovery is about, fueling speculations ranging from alien conspiracy theories to a possible habitable planet we can colonize. All we know as of this time is that NASA will “present new findings on planets that orbit stars other than our Sun, known as exoplanets”.
Exoplanets are not rare; in fact, they’re everywhere in the universe. According to NASA, there are currently 3,449 confirmed planet discoveries beyond our solar system that have been validated by multiple observations. However, this is one of those rare times that NASA is making such a big deal about a discovery, so we can only assume that whatever they’ve found, it’s going to be significant.
The last time an exoplanet announcement got this much hype was when the European Space Organisation confirmed the discovery of an Earth-like planet in the Alpha Centauri star system called Proxima Centauri b.
Everyone is encouraged to ask questions during the conference on Twitter using the #askNASA hashtag. Immediately following the press announcement, head over to Reddit where the briefing participants will be holding a Reddit Ask Me Anything. This is your chance to have a live discussion with actual astronomers and NASA scientists!
Whatever NASA announces, we’re sure it’s going to be exciting! Be a part of scientific history. Go to this link later at 2am (Manila time) to watch the press conference live!
