Hi, we’re scientists who are scouring the night sky for exoplanets, and
then trying to determine if any might reside in the “habitable zones”
of their stars. Ask us anything!
Abstract
Discoveries of planets outside our solar system have burst from a
trickle to a flood in recent years, transforming our understanding of
the Universe. NASA’s Kepler exoplanet-hunting spacecraft and other
missions have shown that the Milky Way Galaxy is teeming with at least
tens of billions of planets. These exoplanets come in a variety of
shapes and sizes, from smaller than Earth to larger than Jupiter, and
include a small number of Earth-size planets in the “habitable zones”
of their stars. Telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope are carefully
examining the atmospheric compositions of many of these alien worlds.
However, the goals of imaging an Earth-size planet around another star
and comprehensively understanding surface properties and atmospheric
characteristics remain elusive. The launch of the James Webb Space
Telescope in 2018 will help move comparative planetology forward, while
astronomers are continuing to design and develop the next generation of
observatories. As scientists deeply involved in this research, we
welcome your questions about the current state of knowledge about the
diversity of exoplanetary systems, and the challenges of direct imaging
and atmospheric characterization in particular. We’re especially
interested in telescope concepts under development to directly image
exoplanets and search for water, ozone, oxygen, and other potential
markers of habitability, and envision where these may take our
understanding of exoplanets in the next decade. Ask us anything! Debra
Fischer, Professor of Astronomy at Yale University. Jessie Christiansen,
Astronomer at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute
of Technology, Pasadena CA. Aki Roberge, Research Astrophysicist &
Study Scientist for the LUVOIR space telescope concept, NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD Jennifer Wiseman, Hubble Space
Telescope Senior Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Dr.
Patricia Boyd Chief, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory &
Director Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Guest Investigator
Program, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center