The Team
The NExSS project is overseen by representatives from NASA HQ, three co-leads, and a Steering Committee composed of the PIs of funded proposal teams selected to be the founding members of NExSS.
Many Worlds
Many Worlds is a website for everyone interested in the burgeoning field of exoplanet detection and research. It presents columns, news stories and in-depth features, as well as the work of guest writers.
NPMP Opportunity with NExSS
Please click here for more details about the opportunity.
NExSS Webinar on Habitability and Biosignatures April 28 2020
The webinar recording is now available. Please click here to access the recording.
TRAPPIST Habitable Atmosphere Intercomparison (THAI) Workshop
Context of the workshop: Upcoming telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), or Extremely Large Telescope (ELTs) may soon be able to characterize the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets orbiting nearby M dwarfs. TRAPPIST-1e seems to be one of the most promising candidate to have potentially habitable surface conditions and is therefore one of the prime targets for JWST atmospheric characterization.
Three Plausible Dynamical Histories for Exoplanetary Systems (Rebekah Dawson, PI)
We investigate whether the exoplanets we observe formed where we see them today, or if they formed further away from their stars and migrated inwards. Using simulations, we recreate the observed orbital configurations of specific exoplanetary systems through three different dynamical histories, two of which are consistent with in situ formation. We determine that all three dynamical histories are plausible for these systems, and by extension, for all known exoplanetary systems.
MacDonald, M. G. & Dawson, R. I. 2018, The Astronomical Journal, 156, 228, https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018AJ....156..228M
Pale Blue Reflections: Investigating the Atmospheres of Earth Analogs with Future Space Imaging Missions (Jonathan Fortney, PI)
We have created a retrieval framework for future space-based direct imaging missions to constrain properties of Earth-like planets. We simulate albedo spectra of Earth that WFIRST, HabEx, and LUVOIR may measure. With inverse modeling, we can determine our ability to measure important quantities related to habitability. To detect atmospheric water vapor, molecular oxygen, and ozone abundance, we need data at spectral resolution of 70 and signal-to-noise ratio of 20; to constrain these abundances, we need data at resolution of 140, signal-to-noise ratio of 20.
Feng, Y. K., Robinson, T. D., Fortney, J. J., et al. 2018, The Astronomical Journal, 155, 200. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/
NExSS Events Calendar
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