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Issue 11 - July 2013HEADLINES
 1. Message from NASA Astrophysics Division Director
Since fall 2012, NASA has been studying potential uses of the 2.4-meter telescope assets that were made available to the Agency by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in mid-2012. The Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (AFTA) study showed that for approximately the same costs, the telescope assets would enable a Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission with significantly improved science capabilities relative to the design described in the Astrophysics Decadal Survey. Use of the telescope assets would also enable the addition of an exoplanet imaging instrument to WFIRST that would enable imaging and characterization of planets around nearby stars up to a decade earlier than contemplated in the Decadal Survey. The results of the studies were presented to the NASA Administrator and other senior officials across the Agency on May 30, 2013. Read More... 2. Program Managers Update: an ExEP-tional Purpose
Some Have Asked: What Is ExEP? ExEP is the Exoplanet Exploration Program, one of three programmatic themes within the Astrophysics Division at NASA (the others are Cosmic Origins and Physics of the Cosmos). ExEP is chartered to support the 2011 NASA Strategic Plan goal 2.4 to Discover how the universe works, explore how it began and evolved, and search for Earth-like planets. Further, ExEP is chartered to address science area objectives from the 2010 Science Mission Directorate Science Plan including planetary system formation, generation of a census of extrasolar planets, and a measurement of their properties. Personally I find this to be a powerful, compelling purpose for our work! Read More... 3. Kepler on Hold, yet Next Earth May Lurk in DataBy Nick Gautier, Kepler Deputy Project Scientist
On May 14th, the Kepler spacecraft suffered its second reaction wheel failure and autonomously entered thruster-controlled safe mode. Since the Kepler spacecraft cannot point itself accurately with only the two remaining reaction wheels, the Kepler team has stopped data collection and has placed the Kepler spacecraft in a configuration called Point Rest State that keeps the spacecraft in a safe attitude, allows for continuous communication, and provides for very low fuel usage. While this second wheel failure is disappointing, Kepler had already successfully completed its baseline mission of 3 1/2 years of observations last November and exceeded its design mission lifetime of four years. Read More... 4. AFTA Gets Nod from on HighBy Neil Gehrels
We have excellent news this month for AFTA. The 2013 final report has been submitted and NASA has approved continued work to move the mission forward. Here are the details. The AFTA Science Definition Team (SDT) and Project team for WFIRST finished the final report on the 2013 study on March 24 and submitted it to NASA. A copy of the report can be found at http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.5422 There is also a shorter "primer" with information for astronomers at http://arxiv.org/abs/1305.5425. Read More... 5. Two Stellar Teams, One Interstellar Goal: Direct DetectionBy Steve Unwin
Two Science and Technology Definition Teams (STDTs) have been selected by NASA to develop probe-scale mission concepts. In space astronomy, the term probe refers to the total cost of the mission (not to exceed $1B). The two teams are chartered to develop and deliver mission concepts that use direct imaging for detection and spectroscopy of exoplanets orbiting nearby stars. One team, led by Karl Stapelfeldt of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, will study a concept based on a telescope with an internal coronagraph to generate the ultra-high-contrast images needed for planet detection. The second team, led by Sara Seager of MIT, will study a pair of spacecraft flying in formation - a telescope and an external occulter (starshade). The two teams were selected in May 2013 and have met by telecon; a joint in-person meeting of the teams is planned for early July. Read More... 6. Chasing Gapped DisksBy Catherine Espaillat, Sagan Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
We know that most, if not all, stars were once surrounded by protoplanetary disks. A fundamental question in astronomy is how these disks evolve from initially well-mixed distributions of gas and dust to systems composed mostly of rocky planets and gas giants like our own solar system. It is widely accepted that dust grain growth and settling to the disk midplane are the first steps in creating the planetesimals that amalgamate into planets. Forming planets will then interact with the disk, clearing the surrounding material and leaving observable signatures in the disk in the form of gaps. I am pursuing a multi-wavelength analysis of these gapped disks using data from Spitzer, Herschel, and ground-based millimeter observatories. My goal is to expand our knowledge of planet-forming disks and eventually to detect the youngest known planetary systems. To learn more, please visit www.cfa.harvard.edu/~cespaill. 7. Breathing Life into Exo-atmospheresBy Jean-Michel Desert, Sagan Fellow, Caltech
One important thing we have learned about exoplanets is that they come in many flavors. Some are probably made up of mostly gas, while others must be rocky. This diversity presents us with an opportunity to understand both planetary formation and how our own solar system formed in a broader context. With these objectives in mind, our most pressing question becomes: what is the overall composition of these alien worlds? My work as a Sagan Fellow focuses on characterizing exoplanets and detecting exo-atmospheres. Observing exo-atmospheres allows us to explore the fundamental properties of exoplanets and to investigate their nature, and may offer clues to their origins. I use state-of-the-art observational techniques associated with ground- and space-based telescopes. These observations are sensitive to spectral features of chemical species present in the atmospheres of these planets. Ultimately, my goals are to characterize potentially habitable terrestrial exoplanets, and to lay the groundwork for more extensive studies with current and future capabilities. 8. Science Update: Kepler, TESS, and the 2.4
Kepler, as you know by now, lost its second reaction wheel (of four total) on May 14 (http://www.nature.com/news/the-wheels-come-off-kepler-1.13032). If the current recovery efforts do not bring one of the two failed wheels back to life (three are needed for precision pointing), then Keplers planet-hunting days are over. This is disappointing, because the Extended Mission just begun was set to significantly improve our estimate of eta-sub-Earth from those extra years. However, we do have more than four years of excellent data, so Kepler has been quite successful in meeting its original requirement, and we celebrate that. Read More... 9. NExScI Crowns the Sagan FiveBy Dawn Gelino
NASA has selected five planet-hunters to receive the 2013 Carl Sagan Exoplanet Postdoctoral Fellowships. The primary goal of the fellowship program is to support outstanding recent postdoctoral scientists in conducting independent research related to the science goals of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program. We congratulate the five 2013 Sagan Fellows: A full description of the 2013 fellows and their projects and other information about the Sagan program are available at: http://nexsci.caltech.edu/sagan/2013postdocRecipients.shtml. 10. Coronagraph Techs Bring it OnBy Peter Lawson
The coronagraph experiments have been doing extremely well this year. Preliminary results of experiments in laser light have now shown that Olivier Guyons PIAA (Phase Induced Amplitude Apodization) and Gene Serabyns Vector Vortex coronagraphs each operate with average contrasts of about 6 x 10-10. That is good news indeed. While each individual is taking care of the requisite paperwork for their milestones, they are also forging ahead with broadband experiments that will eventually enable the detection and characterization of planets. Read More... 11. PICSES is ExEP's New SignBy Michael McElwain, Nancy Grace Roman Fellow, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center
A novel optical integral field spectrograph (IFS) called the Prototype Imaging Spectrograph for Coronagraphic Exoplanet Studies (PISCES) is being built for use with the NASA Exoplanet Exploration Programs High-Contrast Imaging Testbed (HCIT) facility at JPL. PISCES enables spectral characterization of exoplanet atmospheres and can enhance achieved image contrast by providing multi-wavelength measurements of the target stars chromatic point spread function; it will be the first IFS to demonstrate the challenging performance requirements of a mission for direct imaging of Earth-like exoplanets. Expanding high contrast over a broad bandpass is a core objective of the Exoplanet Exploration Programs Technology Plan and the PISCES development is directly relevant to both the Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (AFTA) mission and the probe-scale mission concepts being studied by the Science and Technology Definition Teams. Michael McElwain is PI of the PISCES instrument, which recently received funding through the Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellowship Program. This instrument will be built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and subsequently delivered as a facility-class instrument to the HCIT in 2015. The small PISCES team is composed of scientists and engineers from Goddard, Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), and JPL. A PISCES poster and conference proceeding will be contributed to the 2013 SPIE meeting this August. 12. LBTI Preps for Fall RunBy Rafael Millan-Gabet
The adaptive secondary mirror on the right side of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) has been removed and is undergoing evaluation and repair following an icing event that occurred in April 2013. As a result, the NASA nights scheduled for finalizing LBT Interferometer (LBTI) commissioning in spring 2013 (PI: P. Hinz, University of Arizona) have been postponed until after the summer monsoon shutdown (September 2013). On the bright side, however, LBTI science using the 3-5-micron imaging camera (LMIRCam) continues, making use of the left-side telescope. Moreover, in May 2013 the LBTI beam combiner was successfully cooled and is ready for cold operations on-sky. Until sky observing can resume, the instrument team will be busy performing sensitivity measurements with the cold combiner, closed-dome tests of the nuller path-length control system (making use of the artificial light source, also commissioned in May), and testing new scripting software to automate the observing sequences, which will lead to improved on-sky efficiency. The exozodi project (Hunt for Observable Signatures of Terrestrial planetary Systems, or HOSTS) Science Team is also busy preparing the target list and developing modeling methods and tools. 13. Mobile Makeover for PlanetQuestBy Josh Rodriguez
PlanetQuest has just undergone a mobile makeover! Visit the site using any smartphone and see cool stuff like the latest exoplanet tallies and visualizations of the latest exoplanet discovery statistics, as well as the latest PQ news and feature articles. PQ mobile will even keep track of how many exoplanet discoveries have been made since you last visited the website! All you need is a smartphone and a data connection to check it out: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ave/25. 14. ExoToon: Planet Formation ExplainedBy Stephen Kane
Think you can do better than our Exoplanet cartoon? We're accepting contributions! Please send your cartoons in pdf format, to newworldsnews@ipac.caltech.edu. The best submission received by August 1, 2013 will feature in the next edition of the Newsletter. Selection will be done by a very non-expert committee, comprised of anyone within 30ft of the editor's office on August 5th. By submitting your work, you are giving us permission to use your cartoon (with credits) for any future edition of the NASA New Worlds News Newsletter. Please remember that, once emailed out to the mailing list, we have no control over what anyone else chooses to do with your work. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSNASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program Office
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