NASA’s GUSTO project that stands for ‘Galactic /
Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory’ is a balloon telescope set
to launch from the Antarctic McMurdo Station. The device been put together to collect data that will be
used to understand the formation of stars and planets, as well as generate a 3D
map of a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way.
The job of the telescope is to specifically detecting signals of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in the interstellar medium – information that will ultimately help NASA scientists acquire valuable understandings of the formation of stars and planets. More precisely, it will likely help resolve the most important question from heliophysicists and astrophysicists: what makes space particles come together to make up the molecular clouds that are formed prior to stars?
