The upcoming Pandora Mission is the Bay Area’s latest contribution to the search for life on other planets

Amid a new wave of interest in the possibility of life on other worlds, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA are embarking on a new effort to identify planets with the basic compounds for life when they launch a small satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara in January.

The 13-month Pandora Mission will attempt to capture the atmospheric conditions of 20 planets as they eclipse their respective suns, an effort to aid the James Webb Space Telescope’s photographing of planets orbiting vibrant, young stars.