00:00Lost Water in the Cosmos
00:02The mission that reveals the secret to extraterrestrial life
00:06Sometimes, space science seems to focus on incredibly specific, almost esoteric, objectives
00:13But behind every mission lies a cosmic question
00:17The most recent, the Carruthers GeoCorona Observatory
00:21Has a seemingly modest goal, to study the GeoCorona
00:25The most distant and least understood part of Earth's atmosphere
00:29Also known as the Exosphere
00:32However, this mission isn't just about Earth
00:35It's the key to finding water, and potentially life, on other planets
00:40To achieve its objective, the spacecraft is headed to a strategic location
00:45The L1 Lagrange Point
00:47A stable gravitational spot, 1.6 million kilometers from Earth
00:52Four times farther than the Moon, and much closer to the Sun
00:56This mission is the culmination of a dream, dating back over half a century
01:01In April 1972, during the Apollo 16 mission
01:05Astronauts deployed an ultraviolet light camera designed by engineer and physicist, Dr. George Carruthers
01:12That camera captured the first images of the GeoCorona
01:16But from the Moon, Dr. Carruthers realized it couldn't capture the Exosphere in its entirety
01:2250 years later, Carruthers' dream is coming true
01:26The new observatory carries a much more advanced ultraviolet camera
01:30It's equipped with a wide-field imager to capture the entire Exosphere
01:34And a near-field imager to detail the interactions of this layer with the lower atmosphere and the particles constantly
01:41Flowing from the Sun
01:43But let us return to the crucial question
01:46Why go to such lengths just to photograph our planet as Halo?
01:51The answer is both simple and profound
01:54Water and habitability
01:56The interaction of the Sun with Earth's outer atmosphere is the mission's scientific focus
02:02This interaction is, in fact, one of the main mechanisms by which Earth loses its hydrogen to space
02:10This is of critical importance because hydrogen is one of the fundamental components of water
02:16And water, as we know, is absolutely essential for life
02:20By detailing and understanding how Earth loses its hydrogen, scientists gain vital information
02:27This knowledge allows them to refine and narrow the search for exoplanets that might possess sufficient amounts of water to be potentially habitable
02:35In essence, by intensely studying our own pale blue dot and the complex ways it maintains its water supply
02:42We are acquiring the necessary framework to understand how water and life are sustained on other pale blue dots scattered throughout the galaxy
02:51The Carruthers GeoCorona Observatory isn't just studying our home
02:56It's providing a fundamental piece of the puzzle in the great cosmic hunt for life
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03:09The Carruthers GeoCorona Observatory
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