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PlanetQuest is
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's education and public outreach program centered on the science and technology of NASA's long-term search for habitable planets beyond the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
.
Major components of the PlanetQuest outreach program include:
* PlanetQuest: the Search for Another Earth, a continuously updated public news and multimedia Internet site;
* The Night Sky Network, a national coalition of amateur astronomy clubs who do astronomy education and public outreach on behalf of NASA;
* The Center for Astronomy Education, which provides professional development resources for instructors who teach introductory astronomy course, including a series of national “Teaching Excellence” workshops;
* Informal education initiatives, including “PlanetQuest Updates” provided to more than 60 museums nationwide, and interactive multimedia kiosks.
Begun in January 2002 and based at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...
, PlanetQuest is funded by the Exoplanet Exploration Program, a long-term suite of NASA missions designed to detect and characterize of Earth-like planets. The main components of Navigator include two ground-based and two space based missions:
On Earth:
* The
Keck Interferometer
The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Both telescopes have aperture primary mirrors, and, when c ...
. Initial interferometeric work began in 2005.
* The
Large Binocular Telescope
The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is an optical telescope for astronomy located on Mount Graham, in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona, United States. It is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory.
When using both ...
Interferometer. Instrument that is part of the Large Binocular Telescope, which has been operational since 2005.
In space:
* SIM PlanetQuest. SIM Lite cancelled in 2010.
* The
Terrestrial Planet Finder
The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) was a proposed project by NASA to construct a system of space telescopes for detecting extrasolar terrestrial planets. TPF was postponed several times and finally cancelled in 2011. There were two telescope ...