NASA’s Search for Water
in the Universe
Dr. Emma Marcucci (STScI)
Dr. Gary Melnick (Harvard CfA)
Dr. Rob Zellem (JPL)
Dr. Avi Mandell (GSFC)
Facilitator: Dr. Emma Marcucci (STScI)
Science Briefing
December 7, 2017
Additional Resources
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http://nasawavelength.org/list/1993
Water in the Universe:
Herschel video
Cosmic precipitation (2)
Water in the Solar System:
Ocean Worlds website
Ocean Worlds infographics
Featured Resource:
NASA Scientific Visualization Studio Website
Additional Resources:
Science on a Sphere: Invisible Mars
Overview of Water in the Solar System
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Emma MarcucciSpace Telescope Science Institute
HiRISE, MRO, LPL/UA, NASA
NASA, JPL/Caltech
Ocean Worlds
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NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
NASA/JPL/GSFC/SwRI/SSI NASA/ESA/W. Sparks (STScI)/USGS-ASC
Enceladus
NASA/ESA/W. Sparks (STScI)/USGS-ASC
Europa
• Cassini observed Enceladus plumes• Hubble observed Europa plumes
• Mission cooperation helped for a more comprehensive picture
Mars—Did it have water? Where did it go?
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NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
?
NASA/GSFC
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University
NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Surface Features
Mineralogy
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL
Mars—Where is water now?
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NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Europa
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
Frozen
Transient
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of ArizonaNASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Vertical Exaggeration 5
Earth is relatively dry
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NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Europa
Europa has a radius that is ~4x smaller than Earth, but it has ~2x the amount of water (by volume)
Earth GanymedeEuropa
Ganymede has a radius that is ~2.5x smaller than Earth, but it has ~40x the amount of water (by volume)
Water on Earth
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NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Europa
• Earth is too close to Sun for water to have been present since formation
• Earth is dry compared to other bodies• Water may have been delivered by colliding
asteroids and comets• Chemical markers could suggest the primary
delivery mode
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Asteroid Vesta
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Water vapor at ≤ 1000 K (1340°F) emits all of its energy in
spectral lines at infrared and submillimeter wavelengths,
between 25 and 1000 microns
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The best way to study water within cold interstellar clouds is to go to space, above the absorbing effects of our atmosphere
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Eagle Nebula (“Pillars of Creation”)
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Ice covered dust grains reside in the interiors of dense
molecular clouds
Molecular Cloud Barnard 68
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Molecular clouds collapse to form stars and planets
(and presumably carry these ice-covered grains into the disk)
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Ice-covered grains settle to the protoplanetary disk mid-plane
where they coalesce into mm, cm, and eventually meter-sized
boulders which either become incorporated into forming planets, or
rain down on these planets, delivering water to their surface
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Water in the Universe – The Future
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Exoplanets:Finding Life in the Galaxy
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Dr. Rob Zellem
NASA/JPL
Planetary Transit Technique
• Measures the change in brightness as the planet passes in front of or behind its host star
– At best, the dip in brightness is ~1%
• Gives us the planet-to-star radius ratio
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NASA Ames
NASA’s Kepler/K2 Missions
• NASA Planet Hunter
• Launched in 2009
• 2337 confirmed exoplanets
• 4496 exoplanet candidates
• May 2014: K2 Mission
– 175 confirmed exoplanets
– 515 exoplanet candidates
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NASA/JPL
NASA Ames/W.Stenzel
Studying Exoatmospheres with Light
• Amount of absorption changes with wavelength
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Studying Exoatmospheres with Light
• Amount of absorption changes with wavelength
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The planet appears
smaller at these
wavelengths
Transit Spectroscopy
• Measuring the Spectra of Exoplanets
– Observe how the planet’s radius varies with wavelength
– Can infer properties about its atmosphere
27Adapted from Sing et al. 2016
Rel
ativ
e P
lan
et S
ize
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Transit Spectrosocopywith Hubble
• Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)
– Clouds and hazes
• Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)
– Molecules (e.g., H2O)
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NASA
Rel
ativ
e P
lan
et S
ize
Adapted from Sing et al. 201628
Hubble: Finding Water
Iyer, Swain, Zellem et al. (2016)
No
rmal
ized
Pla
net
Siz
e
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Hubble: Finding Water
• 30 planet sample
• Water in its gaseous form
• These planets are too hot for liquid water
Tsiaras et al. 2017
Pla
net
Siz
e
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TRAPPIST-1
NASA
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NASA’s Immediate Future
• Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
– All-sky survey to find new transiting exoplanets
• James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
– Transit spectroscopy of tens of transiting exoplanets
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NASA/MIT
NASA/Goddard
The Future of Transiting Exoplanet Observations
• Uniform survey of large numbers of exoplanets with two proposed missions
• NASA’s Fast Infrared Exoplanet Spectroscopy Survey Explorer (FINESSE)
• ESA’s Atmospheric Remote-sensing Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL)– Potential NASA participation
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ESA/UCLArtist’s Concept
NASA/JPLArtist’s Concept
Pre-Decision Information — For Planning and Discussion Purposes Only
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THE GSFC SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO (SVS)
Avi M. Mandell, NASA GSFC
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THE GSFC SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO (SVS)
• https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
– The SVS works closely with scientists in the creation of visualizations, animations, and images
in order to illuminate key information and results related to NASA missions
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• How to find visualizations on “Water in the Universe”
– First enter “water” into the search box
– Choose your Category – “Universe” or “Planets & Moons”, or both (best for exoplanets and
astrobio)
THE GSFC SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO (SVS)
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• Solar System: “Europa Plumes”
– Hosted description and animations of the discovery of water plumes from Europa
THE GSFC SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO (SVS)
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• Star Formation: “HIRMES Instrument”
– An overview of the new SOFIA/HIRMES far-infrared instrument, with some sample
science included
THE GSFC SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO (SVS)
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• Exoplanets: “Alien Atmospheres”
– General overview of how we use exoplanet transit measurements to examine atmospheres
THE GSFC SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO (SVS)
ASTC partnership
A Professional Development opportunity –
How to Use NASA Resources;
future funding resources available
• Seven webinars to be held in 2018, with these goals:• Increase knowledge of NASA Astrophysics-related concepts• Improve familiarity of NASA Astrophysics resources and ways
to use them• Utilize real NASA data• Interact with NASA Subject Matter Experts
• To participate in this webinar series, contact Wendy Hancock at [email protected] or Tim Rhue at [email protected] by December 31, 2017
As a follow-on to this webinar series, there will be an opportunity to apply for $2,500 mini-fund resources to be competitively awarded to selected institutions, in order to implement or facilitate programming, produce exhibits, etc., using Universe of Learning resources.
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To ensure we meet the needs of the education community (you!), NASA’s UoL is committed to performing regular evaluations, to determine the effectiveness of Professional Learning opportunities like the Science Briefings.
If you prefer not to participate in the evaluation process, you can opt out by contactingKay Ferrari <[email protected]>.
This product is based upon work supported by NASA under award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sonoma State University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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