National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Exoplanet Exploration

Program Home Page: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Navigator/navigator_index.cfm

The Exoplanet Exploration Program searches for and detects terrestrial planets that might exist in the habitable zones of nearby stars. It then characterizes the atmospheres of all detected planets, and searches for indicators of the presence of life on terrestrial planets. Planetary systems (plus zodiacal dust) are also studied as a whole. The program answers the question "Is there life elsewhere in the Universe?"

The Exoplanet Exploration Program will consist of a coherent series of increasingly challenging projects, each complementary to the others, and all missions building on the results and capabilities of those that preceded them as NASA searches for habitable planets outside the solar system. Each mission will measure unique properties of exoplanets. Together, the missions will build a synergistic picture of exoplanets that no single mission can do.