To further understand exoplanets and how the planet stars and their neighbors interact with each other to support life, NASA will be bringing together experts across scientific fields for a historic initiative dedicated to searching for life outside the solar system.
Called Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), the interdisciplinary endeavor will be connecting top research teams and will be providing a systematic approach as the agency searches for planets with the highest likelihood for life, explained Jim Green, Director of Planetary Science for NASA. He also added that while astronomers are most focused on exoplanets, their study is also of interest to climate and planetary scientists.
Exoplanets are planets of other stars. Their study is a generally new field, with the first exoplanet discovered in 1995. Since the Kepler space telescope was launched by NASA six years ago, over a thousand exoplanets have already been found. Thousands are also in line, waiting to be confirmed. Aside from simply confirming their existence, scientists are working to come up with means to prove habitability in exoplanets and search these worlds for signs of life or biosignatures.
Integral to the effort is an understanding of how an exoplanet's biology interacts with its geology, oceans, interior and atmosphere, as well as how these relationships are affected by the its host star. Following a "system science" approach will aid in better understanding how life can be spotted on exoplanets.
Specificially, NExSS will be tapping into the science communities that NASA's Science Mission Directorate supports. These include: the earth scientists, the planetary scientists, the heliophysicists and the astrophysicists. As these experts collaborate, NASA will be a step closer to determining whether or not there is life out there.
NExSS will be headed by Natalia Batalha from the Ames Research Center, Anthony del Genio from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Dawn Gelino from NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, NExScl. Team members were chosen through submitted proposals to the Science Mission Directorate. Teams will hail from Berkeley/Standford University, the University of Arizona, the Arizona State University, the Hampton University, the University of Wyoming, Penn State University, the University of Maryland, Yale University, SETI Institute, University of Nebraska-Kearney, University of California, Santa Cruz, the California Institute of Technology and the University of Washington.
The Transisting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is scheduled for a 2017 launch, while the James Webb Space Telescope will follow suit in 2018. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope is being considered for a launch in the 2020s.
