NN-EXPLORE: NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research

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NN-EXPLORE: NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research

Post by bystander » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:05 pm

NN-EXPLORE: NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have established a new partnership for exoplanet research in response to the recommendation of the Astro2010 Decadal Survey that "NASA and NSF should support an aggressive program of ground-based high-precision radial velocity surveys of nearby stars in order to validate and characterize exoplanet candidates."

This new NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research (NN-EXPLORE) partnership will take advantage of the full National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) share of the 3.5-m Wisconsin, Indiana, Yale, and NOAO (WIYN) telescope on Kitt Peak to provide the community with the tools and access to conduct ground-based observations that advance exoplanet science, with particular emphasis on Kepler, K2, and (eventually) TESS follow-up observations and on observations that inform future NASA missions, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope – Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (WFIRST-AFTA) mission. ...

NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research Partnership
American Astronomical Society | 2016 Feb 03
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

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NEID: NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler Spectroscopy

Post by bystander » Tue Mar 29, 2016 8:12 pm

NASA Solicits Proposals for a World-class Precision Doppler Spectrometer at Kitt Peak National Observatory
National Optical Astronomical Observatory | 2016 Feb 09

Kitt Peak National Observatory is the future home of a state-of-the-art instrument that will be used to detect and characterize other worlds. The new instrument, an extreme precision radial velocity spectrometer, will measure the subtle motion of stars produced by their orbiting planets. The spectrometer, funded by NASA, will be deployed on an existing telescope at Kitt Peak, the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope. The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), which is funded by NSF, is a partner in the telescope and operates Kitt Peak.

The spectrometer is the cornerstone of a newly established partnership between NSF and NASA focused on exoplanet research (NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research; NN-EXPLORE), which aims to advance exoplanet science through the use of the NOAO share of the WIYN telescope. ...

NASA Selects Penn State to Lead Next-Generation Planet Finder Instrument
Penn State University | 2016 Mar 29

A Penn State-led research group has been selected by NASA's Astrophysics Division to build a $10-million, cutting-edge instrument to detect planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. The team, led by Suvrath Mahadevan, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, was selected after an intense national competition. When completed in 2019, the instrument will be the centerpiece of a partnership between NASA and the National Science Foundation called the NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research program (NN-EXPLORE).

"We are privileged to have been selected to build this new instrument for the exoplanet community," Mahadevan said. "This is a testament to our multi-institutional and interdisciplinary team of talented graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and senior scientists." The instrument is named NEID – derived from the word meaning “to discover/visualize” in the native language of the Tohono O’odham, on whose land Kitt Peak National Observatory is located. NEID also is short for “NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler Spectroscopy.” NEID will detect planets by the tiny gravitational tug they exert on their stars. ...

NASA Selects Instrument Team to Build Next-Gen Planet Hunter
NASA | 2016 Mar 29

NASA has selected a team to build a new, cutting-edge instrument that will detect planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, by measuring the miniscule “wobbling” of stars. The instrument will be the centerpiece of a new partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) called the NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research program, or NN-EXPLORE.

The instrument, named NEID (pronounced “nee-id”), which is short for NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler Spectroscopy, will measure the tiny back-and-forth wobble of a star caused by the gravitational tug of a planet in orbit around it. The wobble tells scientists there is a planet orbiting the star, and the size of the wobble indicates how massive the planet is.

The highly precise instrument, to be built by a Pennsylvania State University research group led by Dr. Suvrath Mahadevan, will be completed in 2019 and installed on the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. ...
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

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