NASA Exoplanet Science Institute Headlines
NExScI is the science operations and analysis center for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program. We provide tools and archives for the exoplanet community, administer the Sagan program of fellowships and workshops, and support the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer and administration of the NASA Keck telescope time. Click here to see past headlines and events.
Hot Jupiters in a Petri Dish
Nikole Lewis, a Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, is the lead author on a recent paper that discusses the results of the longest Spitzer observation yet of a hot Jupiter. "These planets are much hotter and more dynamic than our own Jupiter. Strong winds are churning material up from below, and the chemistry is always changing," said Lewis. Click for the press release and for the ApJ paper.
Fingerprinting Exoplanet Atmospheres
NExScI director Chas Beichman is a co-author on a new ApJ paper that examines the first simultaneous spectroscopic observations of multiple planets in a planetary system other than our own. Click for the press release and for the ApJ paper.
Exoplanet Characterization by Proxy
Sarah Ballard, a Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington, is inferring the properties of small, relatively cool stars too distant for measurement, by comparing them to closer stars that now can be directly observed. Her results are discussed in a press release and will be published in ApJ.NExScI 101
For an introduction to NExScI's managed and supported data tools, archives, telescope time, meetings, and fellowships, click here. This PDF file contains the NExScI brochures and handouts prepared for the January 2013 AAS meeting in Long Beach. The movie that we show at the NExScI booth can be viewed here. Have We Found Other Earths?
Read the statement of Dr. John M. Grunsfeld, NASA's Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, before the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Space U.S. House of Representatives.
2013 Sagan Summer Workshop Cancelled
The 2013 Sagan Summer Workshop on Imaging Planets and Disks has been cancelled due to impacts of the Federal Budget sequestration (full statement).Announcing the 2013 Class of Sagan Fellows!
NExScI is pleased to announce the 2013 Sagan Postdoctoral Fellows. Click here for more information on the Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship program.Call for 2013B NASA Keck Proposals
The 2013B call is now closed. It included opportunities for Kepler Key Science and Comet ISON observations. Details can be found here.NASA Keck Time Discovers Atmospheric Molecules around HR8799c
NASA Keck PI, Dr. Travis Barman (Lowell Observatory) is part of a team that has made the most detailed examination to date of a Jupiter-sized exoplanet atmosphere. Using NASA time on the Keck II telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory, they have detected a cloudy atmosphere containing water vapor and carbon monoxide around HR8799c. Click here for the press release and here for the Science Express article.