National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is currently exploring the behavior of our solar system to fetch answers to basic questions such as how humans came to the earth, where humans are going. Moreover, the US-based space agency is also gearing up to find whether humans are alone in the universe. These experiments are reportedly carried out just days before Juno’s first close-up images of Jupiter will be unveiled on August 27.

Commenting on the development, Jim Green, Director, NASA Planetary Division revealed that Juno is the latest example of the credible and extraordinary science the agency is looking forward to exploring the nature of our own solar system. Green added that the researchers are eager to explore and navigate several uncharted and promising objects, which will help them both in the current and upcoming missions.

NASA to launch OSIRIS-REx

In the meantime, NASA is expected to launch OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer), which will land on the near-Earth asteroid (Bennu) to collect samples. However, the mission will return to Earth only in 2023. We expect that the mission will collect several samples of soils, rocks, and water over a different period of time.

Touted to unravel core secrets of the history of our solar system, the OSIRIS-REx throws light on how human life originated on our planet several years back. The findings will help future researchers to explore the mystery behind the existence of humans.

Meanwhile, the James Webb Space Telescope dubbed to launch in 2018 can not only monitor faint objects across the universe but also neighboring planets and surrounding moons within our current solar system.

The telescope’s angular and spectral resolution enables users to carefully observe the targets with great accuracy. It is also possible to follow geologic activity, which will help scientists to find traces of various objects on the Earth before the exploration of humans.

NASA has selected nine science instruments, which will be integrated with an upcoming mission to study whether Europa-a, a mysterious moon contains liquid ocean beneath its icy surface. Earlier, Hubble has successfully captured Jupiter’s auroras and found traces of salt water on Ganymede, which is the Jupiter’s largest moon.

To recall, NASA has scheduled InSight mission to study the interior surface of the Red Planet in 2018 and the upcoming Mars rover launch in 2020.