science briefing december 7, 2017 nasa’s search for water...

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/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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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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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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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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• 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

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/

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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)



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• Solar System: “Europa Plumes”

– Hosted description and animations of the discovery of water plumes from Europa



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• Star Formation: “HIRMES Instrument”

– An overview of the new SOFIA/HIRMES far-infrared instrument, with some sample

science included



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• Exoplanets: “Alien Atmospheres”

– General overview of how we use exoplanet transit measurements to examine atmospheres



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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science briefing december 7, 2017 nasa’s search for water...

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