This illustration depicts NASA’s view of NExSS as involving those studying Earth (lower right); those studying solar system planets (left) and those discovering exoplanets (upper right) (Photo : NASA)
With the discovery of over 1,000 exoplanets since 1995, NASA has launched NExSS, a more organized effort to search for alien life and to study how stars and their exoplanets interact to support life.
NExSS or the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science has brought together experts from a variety of scientific fields for the first and unprecedented initiative dedicated to the search for life on exoplanets.
Scientists are currently developing ways to confirm the habitability of exoplanets and search for biosignatures, or signs of life. The key to this effort, however, is understanding how biology interacts with the atmosphere, geology, oceans, and interior of a planet, and how these interactions are affected by the host star.
This "system science" approach will help scientists better understand how to look for life on exoplanets. The study of exoplanets or planets orbiting other stars is a relatively new field.
"This interdisciplinary endeavor connects top research teams and provides a synthesized approach in the search for planets with the greatest potential for signs of life," said Jim Green of NASA's Planetary Science Division.
"The hunt for exoplanets is not only a priority for astronomers, it's of keen interest to planetary and climate scientists as well."
The NExSS team will consist of Earth scientists, planetary scientists, heliophysicists and astrophysicists that will collaborate to share their perspectives, research results and approaches in the pursuit of one of humanity's deepest questions: Are we alone?
It will help classify the diversity of worlds being discovered, understand the potential habitability of these worlds, and develop tools and technologies needed in the search for life beyond Earth.
NExSS will be led by Natalie Batalha of NASA's Ames Research Center, Dawn Gelino with NExScI, the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute and Anthony del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The NExSS project also will include team members from 10 different universities and two research institutes. These teams were selected from proposals submitted across NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said Astronomy Magazine.
"NExSS scientists will not only apply a systems science approach to existing exoplanet data, their work will provide a foundation for interpreting observations of exoplanets from future exoplanet missions such as TESS, JWST, and WFIRST," said Paul Hertz of the Astrophysics Division at NASA.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is working toward a 2017 launch with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) scheduled for launch in 2018. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is currently being studied by NASA for a launch in the 2020s.
Since the launch of NASA's Kepler space telescope six years ago, over 1,000 exoplanets have been found with thousands of additional candidates waiting to be confirmed.
