The Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) initiative is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

) virtual institute designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the search for

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

s. Led by the

Ames Research Center The Ames Research Center (ARC), also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) labora ...

, the

NASA Exoplanet Science Institute The NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) is part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and is on the campus of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA. NExScI was formerly known as the Michelson Sci ...

, and the

Goddard Institute for Space Studies The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute. The institute is located at Columbia University in N ...

, NExSS will help organize the search for life on exoplanets from participating research teams and acquire new knowledge about exoplanets and extrasolar planetary systems.Loff, Sarah (April 21, 2015).
NASA’s NExSS Coalition to Lead Search for Life on Distant Worlds
" NASA. Retrieved April 22, 2015.Gronstal, Aaron L. (April 2015). "NASA's Exoplanet Nexus �
Part 1: A History in Climate Studies
. NASA. GISS. Retrieved April 25, 2015.

History

NASA-WhatBiosignaturesDoesLifeProduce-20180625

In 1995, astronomers using ground-based observatories discovered

51 Pegasi b 51 Pegasi b, officially named Dimidium , and formerly unofficially dubbed Bellerophon , is an extrasolar planet approximately away in the constellation of Pegasus. It was the first exoplanet to be discovered orbiting a main-sequence star, the S ...

, the first exoplanet orbiting a

Sun-like star Solar-type star, solar analogs (also analogues), and solar twins are stars that are particularly similar to the Sun. The stellar classification is a hierarchy with solar twin being most like the Sun followed by solar analog and then solar-typ ...

.
NASA Taps UW Scientist in Search for Life Beyond the Solar System
" ''University of Wyoming News''. Retrieved April 25, 2015. NASA launched the

Kepler space telescope The Kepler space telescope is a disused space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbi ...

in 2009 to search for Earth-size exoplanets. By 2015, they had confirmed more than a thousand exoplanets, while several thousand additional candidates awaited confirmation.Netburn, Deborah (April 24, 2015).
NASA gathers scientists to help find life beyond Earth
. ''Los Angeles Times''. Retrieved April 25, 2015. To help coordinate efforts to sift through and understand the data, NASA needed a way for researchers to collaborate across disciplines. The success of the

Virtual Planetary Laboratory The Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) is a virtual institute based at the University of Washington that studies how to detect exoplanetary habitability and their potential biosignatures. First formed in 2001, the VPL is part of the NASA Astro ...

research network at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

led Mary A. Voytek, director of the NASA Astrobiology Program, to model its structure and create the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) initiative. Leaders from three NASA research centers will run the program:

Natalie Batalha Natalie M. Batalha (born 1966) is professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. Previously she was a research astronomer in the Space Sciences Division of NASA Ames Research Center and held the position of Co-Investigator and Kepler M ...

of NASA's Ames Research Center, Dawn Gelino of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, and Anthony Del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.Carreau, Mark (April 24, 2015).
NASA Widens Circle of Experts In Search for Life Beyond Earth
" ''Aviation Week''. Retrieved April 25, 2015.

Research

Functioning as a virtual institute, NExSS is currently composed of sixteen interdisciplinary science teams from ten universities, three NASA centers and two research institutes, who will work together to search for habitable exoplanets that can support life.Sanders, Robert (April 22, 2015).
Astronomers join forces to speed discovery of habitable worlds
" UC Berkeley News Center. Retrieved April 22, 2015. The US teams were initially selected from a total of about 200 proposals; however, the coalition is expected to expand nationally and internationally as the project gets underway.Cassidy, Chris (April 25, 2015).
NASA leaves local aerospace stars Harvard, MIT off ‘unprecedented’ mission to find extraterrestrial life
" ''Boston Herald''. Retrieved April 26, 2015. Teams will also work with amateur

citizen scientists Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...

who will have the ability to access the public Kepler data and search for exoplanets. NExSS will draw from scientific expertise in each of the four divisions of the

Science Mission Directorate The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engages the United States’ science community, sponsors scientific research, and develops and deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with NAS ...

Earth science Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spher ...

planetary science Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of the ...

heliophysics Heliophysics (from the prefix " helio", from Attic Greek ''hḗlios'', meaning Sun, and the noun "physics": the science of matter and energy and their interactions) is the physics of the Sun and its connection with the Solar System. NASA defin ...

and

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the he ...

. NExSS research will directly contribute to understanding and interpreting future exoplanet data from the upcoming launches of the

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS, Explorer 95 or MIDEX-7) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the ''Keple ...

and

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble ...

, as well as the planned

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (shortened as Roman or the Roman Space Telescope, and formerly the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope or WFIRST) is a NASA infrared space telescope currently in development and scheduled to launch by Ma ...

mission. Current NExSS research projects as of 2015:

Notes

References

{{authority control Research institutes in the United States NASA groups, organizations, and centers Astrobiology Astrochemistry Exoplanetology Exoplanet search projects

History

Research

See also

Notes

References