But with the HOEE concept, ground-based telescopes that fall into the 30-meter-class (~100 ft) range could also conduct Direct Imaging surveys. Initially, it was thought that only space telescopes like the James Webb and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST) could benefit from a starshade-type spacecraft.
The key to the HOEE is the "Starshade" spacecraft, a concept introduced by the Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) at NASA JPL back in 2016. I can't wait to see what ideas they bring to the table." It is truly exciting that the public can be part of this revolutionary effort. Observing many systems would help answer the question of why configurations like our own are rare and why none is quite like home. "The hybrid observatory might help us answer some of the most pressing questions about extraterrestrial life. John Mather, a senior astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and a senior project scientist for the JWST: An important part of this method is the coronagraph, an instrument that blocks out the glare of parent stars so that the light reflected from exoplanet atmospheres can be visualized and scanned using spectrometers to determine the chemical composition. This data will allow astronomers and astrobiologists to characterize exoplanets and confidently say whether a planet is "habitable" or not. The spectra obtained can yield data on a planet's surface minerals and determine the presence of oceans, continents, weather systems, vegetation, and the gases that make up its atmosphere. In this case, light from distant exoplanets is captured directly and analyzed with a spectrometer. However, with next-generation instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers can conduct Direct Imaging studies of exoplanets. When used in combination, these methods are very effective at constraining the size and orbital period of exoplanets (Transit Method) and their respective masses (Radial Velocity Method). Doppler Spectroscopy), where the movement of a star back and forth (relative to the observer) is used to determine the gravitational influences acting on the star (i.e., a system of planets). Another is the Radial Velocity Method (aka. Transit Photometry), where periodic dips in a star's brightness are used to detect the presence of one or more planets passing in front of it (transiting) relative to the observer. To date, most known exoplanets have been confirmed through indirect methods. The challenge is part of NASA's Prizes, Challenges, and Crowdsourcing program, overseen by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). The NASA Tournament Lab is managing the challenge, which supports the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) study of the HOEE concept.
NASA ALIEN NEWS 2014 FREE
The challenge is being hosted by GrabCAD, a Massachusetts-based startup that hosts a free cloud-based platform that helps engineering teams collaborate and manage, view, and share Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files. To that end, they have launched the Ultralight Starshade Structural Design Challenge, where participants are asked to develop a design for a lightweight starshade structure that could be used as part of the HOEE concept. The concept is known as the Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE), and NASA is looking for public input to make it a reality. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.To make this process easier, NASA is designing a hybrid observatory consisting of a "Starshade" that will block out a star's light so that a ground-based telescope can directly image planets orbiting it. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Science.Ĭopyright 2014 by. Westphal says the suspected interstellar particles are surprisingly diverse. The team was assisted by 30,000 citizen-scientists, who scanned more than 1 million images in search of elusive tracks made by incoming particles.
Since then, dozens of scientists worldwide led by physicist Andrew Westphal, of the University of California, Berkeley, have hunted for specks and analyzed the "precious" grains found.
The dust collectors were exposed to space in the early 2000s and returned to Earth in 2006. If confirmed, this would be the world's first sampling of contemporary interstellar dust. Scientists say seven microscopic particles collected by NASA's comet-chasing spacecraft, Stardust, appear to have originated outside our solar system. – There may be itsy-bitsy aliens among us.