"If a moon base were to be built, what would it use as a source of oxygen and water?"
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Seminar Detail
Remote Sensing of Life and Habitable Worlds: Habstars, Earthshine, and the Challenge of TPF
Presenter: Margaret Turnbull
March 14, 2005 01:00 PM Pacific
NASA's coronagraphic version of the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF-C)
is scheduled for launch in ~2014 to directly image terrestrial planets
orbiting within the habitable zones of nearby stars. With this stated
objective, there is clearly a built-in consideration of life and the
hope of finding habitable (or inhabited) worlds. But which stars should
we, or can we, observe? With the capability to search only 35 to 165
stars, and a price tag of more than $1 billion, one of the most
controversial problems that scientists and engineers are now facing is
that of target selection. In the first part of this talk we will
discuss the challenges, both scientific and instrumental, in picking
target stars. On the science side of things, we will review the concept
of "habstars," stars that could set up favorable conditions for life as
we know it on Earth. On the engineering side of things, we will also
look at TPF's likely limitations for planet detection. But how many
habstars actually meet the engineering criteria? Can we create a list
of stars that is both scientifically interesting and observationally
feasible?Participation Instructions
Sites who would like to connect via Polycom need to notify Diane Hawks at
dhawks@mail.arc.nasa.gov.
The slides from the seminar can be viewed real-time using WebEx at
https://naimeetings.webex.com, click on "FAR Seminar", the password is
1KFalcon. If you've never joined a WebEx meeting before, please allow an
extra 5-10 minutes to install the plug-in. Explorer is the recommended
browser.
Sites without a Polycom system can hear the seminar over the telephone while
viewing the slides in WebEx. The NASA Meet-me number for this is
650-604-3393.
Alternatively, participants without a Polycom system can view the webcast
at: http://vanseg-1.arc.nasa.gov/2005/AB050314-01.ram There is a 30 second
delay for the webcast, so viewers will need to advance the slides manually
in WebEx. Questions can be posted in the WebEx chat area to be
answered by Maggie at the end of her talk.December 21, 2007
