NASA Exoplanet Science Institute Headlines
Announcing the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute
The Michelson Science Center has been renamed the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI). NExScI is the science operations and analysis center for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program and will continue to support all MSC activities including tools and archives for the exoplanet community, the Sagan program of fellowships and workshops, support of the Keck Interferometer and administration of the NASA Keck telescope time.
Sagan Summer Workshop
Complete agenda with speaker names, participant list, and on-line registration now available! The 2009 Sagan Summer Workshop will be held July 20-24, 2009 at Caltech. It will consist of a series of tutorial discussions covering theory and observations of exoplanetary atmospheres including what we can learn from the planets in our own solar system. More ...New Version of Visibility Modeling Tool Available
NExScI announces the release of version 2.0 of the Visibility Modeling Tool (VMT 2.0). It can be downloaded as a Java executable, or run via a web applet. The VMT 2.0 offers three main new capabilities:
1. Performs visibility predictions for arbitrary brightness maps, uploaded by the user as FITS images.
2. Of special interest to Keck Interferometer users: Performs a detailed calculation of the KI Nuller response.
3. Allows users to overplot real or simulated interferometer data, uploaded by the user in the OI-FITS format (IAU standard).
Winter IPAC Newsletter
The 2008-2009 IPAC Newsletter is available with news of NExScI and the wider world of IPAC.NExScI Scientist Finds
YSOs in Galactic Center
NExScI staff scientist Solange Ramírez and her collaborators have found young stellar objects in the center of our galaxy. The objects are embedded in cocoons of gas and dust, which will eventually flatten to disks that, according to theory, later lump together to form planets. More...
Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
NExScI is pleased to introduce the inaugural class of Sagan Postdoctoral Fellows! The call for the 2010 Fellowships is expected to go out in late summer 2009. Please see the call for 2009 Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships for more information.2010A Call for NASA Keck Observing Proposals
On-line proposal submission for NASA's portion of the 2010A Keck time will be available in August. Proposals will be due September 16, 2009 at 4 p.m. PST. NASA has opened up the call to a wider range of disciplines. In addition, a portion of the time will be devoted to CoRoT Key Science projects. More information...New Release of the NASA Star and Exoplanet Database
The NASA Star and Exoplanet Database (NStED) is a stellar and exoplanet archive to support NASA's planet finding and characterization activities. This version significantly improves on the stellar and exoplanet content, allowing detailed searches on 70+ parameters for over 140,000 bright, nearby stars, including all known exoplanet-hosting stars. For more details, see the NStED page.