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Results for “Habitability”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRS2020

A NASA Space Scientist/Astronomer Searching for Habitable Worlds

Dr. Jon M. Jenkins presents a career day talk at Saratoga High School discussing the skill sets needed to pursue a career at NASA as a research scientist/manager. He reviews his path to his career at NASA, discusses NASA's Kepler and TESS Missions and NASA's future missions to study and characterize exoplanets.

Jenkins, Jon M.↗
NASA NTRS2020

NASA Planetary Mission Concept Study: Assessing: Dwarf Planet Ceres' past and Present Habitability Potential

The Dawn mission revolutionized our understanding of Ceres during the same decade that has also witnessed the rise of ocean worlds as a research and exploration focus. We will report progress on the Planetary Mission Concept Study (PMCS) on the future exploration of Ceres under the New Frontiers or Flagship program that was selected for NASA funding in October 2019. At the time this writing, the study was just kicked off, hence this abstract reports the study plan as presented in the proposal.

Castillo-Rogez, J. C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

MAPX: A FULL-FIELD X-RAY FLUORESCENCE IMAGER FOR IN-SITU HABITABILITY AND BIOSIGNATURE INVESTIGATIONS

The Mapping X-ray Spectrometer (MapX)is an arm-deployed, in-situ contact instrument. MapX produces 2.5 X 2.5 cm2 elemental images and compositional Regions of Interest(ROI) with ~100 μm lateral spatial resolution, yielding elemental chemistry at a scale where many relict physical, chemical, or bio-logical features can be imaged and interpreted. The instrument has no moving parts and a depth of field of ±5 mm with minimal loss of resolution(so that regolith surfaces can be imaged without sample preparation). MapX can utilize 244Cm radioisotope fluorescence sources in place of X-ray tubes, reducing instrument complexity, mass and risk.

R C Walroth↗
NASA NTRS2019

Impact of Clouds and Hazes on the Simulated JWST Transmission Spectra of Habitable Zone Planets in the TRAPPIST-1 System

The TRAPPIST-1 system, consisting of an ultracool host star having seven known Earth-sized planets, will be a prime target for atmospheric characterization with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). However, the detectability of atmospheric molecular species may be severely impacted by the presence of clouds and/or hazes. In this work, we perform 3D general circulation model (GCM) simulations with the LMD-G model supplemented by 1D photochemistry simulations at the terminator with the Atmos model to simulate several possible atmospheres for TRAPPIST-1e, 1f, and 1g: (1) modern Earth, (2) Archean Earth, and (3) CO2-rich atmospheres. The JWST synthetic transit spectra were computed using the GSFC Planetary Spectrum Generator. We find that the TRAPPIST-1e, 1f, and 1g atmospheres, with clouds and/or hazes, could be detected using JWST's NIRSpec Prism from the CO2 absorption line at 4.3 μm in less than 15 transits at 3σ or less than 35 transits at 5σ. However, our analysis suggests that other gases would require hundreds (or thousands) of transits to be detectable. We also find that H2O, mostly confined in the lower atmosphere, is very challenging to detect for these planets or similar systems if the planets' atmospheres are not in a moist greenhouse state. This result demonstrates that the use of GCMs, self-consistently taking into account the effect of clouds and subsaturation, is crucial to evaluate the detectability of atmospheric molecules of interest, as well as for interpreting future detections in a more global (and thus robust and relevant) approach.

Thomas J. Fauchez↗