Show Me the Planets! NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program
Dr. Gary H. Blackwood Manager, NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology
August 13, 2019 Goddard Retirees and Alumni Association Greenbelt, Maryland
© 2019 All rights reserved Artist concept of Kepler-16b In our Galaxy There Are More Planets than Stars
“And on those other worlds, are there beings who wonder as we do?” - Carl Sagan
1 ex·o·plan·et [ˈeksōˌplanət]
a planet which orbits a star outside our solar system
2 NASA Program Highlights
You Exo Show Me the ^ Planets!
Search for Life in our Galaxy
3 NASA Program Highlights NASA Key Science Themes
Discovering the Secrets of the Universe Searching for Life Elsewhere
Safeguarding and Improving Life on Earth
5 6 NASA Exoplanet Exploration Program
Space Missions and Concept Studies Exoplanet Communications Large- and Probe-Scale Kepler K2 Mission Concepts
Starshade Coronagraph Supporting Research & Technology
Key Sustaining Research Technology Development NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI)
NN-EXPLORE Keck Observatory
Archives, Tools, Sagan Program, Large Binocular High Resolution Coronagraph Starshade Professional Engagement Telescope Imaging Technology Technology Interferometer Development Development (S5) 12 Show Me the Planets! How Many Exoplanets Are Confirmed?
?
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9 Mamajek’s Law Doubling Time for Confirmed Exoplanets
Credit: NASA/JPL -Caltech Eric Mamajek 10 Imagine the 4,000th Confirmed Planet
11 How Are Exoplanets Named? Seeing an Exoplanet Is as Hard as… How Are Exoplanets Discovered? Two Popular Methods
Doppler Spectroscopy Transit (Radial Velocity)
14 NN-EXPLORE Radial Velocity Survey to Learn the Mass of Exoplanets
15 Microlensing Method Another Way to Find Exoplanets
16 Where Are the Exoplanets?
17 18 Kepler Mission: Three Key Results
1. There are more planets than stars in the galaxy
2. Small planets are common
3. Small planets in the Habitable Zone are common
19 A Familiar Habitable Zone
20 Habitable Zones (Exo) Zodiacal Dust Good news! Other solar systems are not very dusty
22 Sizes of Exoplanets A Radius Gap between “Super Earths” and “Mini-Neptunes”
Missing from our solar system
Credit: Fulton et al. 2017 Trappist-1
24 Trappist-1 System The Richest Set of Earth-sized Planets Ever Found
25 Transmission Spectroscopy Sunny with a Chance of Clouds
26 27 TESS
Credit: George Ricker TESS
29 Toasty TESS Planet Leads to Promising World GJ 357b, c and d
30 TESS Scores ‘Hat Trick' With 3 New Worlds
31 Move Over Tatooine Three Sunsets on LTT 1445Ab
32 Teegarden b and c Discovered by Radial Velocity method
33 The Exoplanet Travel Bureau Exploring a Galaxy of Worlds while Inspiring Our Own
34 Our Newest Exoplanet Travel Poster The hottest vacation spot in the galaxy, 55 Cancri e
35 “Exoplanet Earth” Edition We Are a Leo Sun from Trappist-1
• S o l
36 The Search for Life in Our Galaxy
37 Earth’s Extreme Environments Support Life
38 Looking for Life Beyond Earth
39 Looking for Life by Probing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets Habitable Zone
41 “Blue of the sky” measures total amount “Vegetation Earth’s Spectra of atmosphere jump” indicates Carbon dioxide presence of suggests possible land plants volcanic activity Methane indicates presence of anaerobic bacteria
Oxygen Water and ozone vapor were produced suggests by living organisms habitability Credit: M. Turnbull 42 Starlight Suppression
Internal Occulters (Coronagraphs)
43 44 Starlight Suppression
External Occulters (Starshades)
Internal Occulters (Coronagraphs)
45 46 Starshade (External Occulter)
47 Starshade Inner Disk Deployment
48 Starshade Optical Shield
49 Petal Deployment Testbed
50 Imagine a Nearby Solar System
Simulation
51 Spectra Reveals the Type of Planet
52 53 WFIRST
JWST2
PLATO Missions TESS
Kepler LUVOIR5 CHEOPS 4
Spitzer Gaia
Hubble1 Starshade HabEx5 CoRoT3 Rendezvous5
OST5 NASA Non-NASA Missions Missions
W. M. Keck Observatory Large Binocular 6 6 1 WIYN SMARTS 1.5m NASA/ESA Partnership Telescope 2 NASA/ESA/CSA Partnership 5 2020 Decadal Survey Studies 3 CNES/ESA Ground Telescopes with NASA participation 6 NSF Partnership (NN-EXPLORE) 4 ESA/Swiss Space Office Why Explore Exoplanets?
Sol
55 “All these worlds are yours” - Arthur C. Clarke
56 exoplanets.nasa.gov
57 Acknowledgements
This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. © 2019 All rights reserved.