New Worlds

1. New Worlds Planet JWST NWD Starshade Target Star Julia DeMarines Webster Cash, Giada Arney, Phil Oakley, Eric Schindhelm (University of Colorado) And the New Worlds Team (newworlds.colorado.edu) Introduction: New World Observer is a mission designed to search for terrestrial exoplanets, specifically planets that may harbor life. The mission will consist of a 4 meter telescope and a starshade 50 meters across (a 16 petal occulter) that will be in orbit at L2 (Lagrange point 2). The star shade will diffract light in such a way that the light will deconstructively interfere with itself allowing the faint light, reflected off of the planets, to be imaged and analyzed. Method: Once we have identified a target star (one with planets in the habitable zone) we will then take long exposures to be able to gather enough light from the planet to analyze the data. Spectroscopic analysis from the starlight, reflected off the planets, will give insight on the composition of the atmosphere. We have the capability to detect as little as 2% oxygen in an atmosphere, which means we can detect a planet in the early stages of plant production! 16 petal starshade Courtesy of Northrop Grumman Space Technology Imaging exo-solar systems and planets: The starshade will reduce the stars’ light to enable us to image its’ exo-solar system (see image to the right) N.W.O. will be able to roughly map continents and the oceans of exoplanets. This is done by photometrically observing the most interesting planets, over time, and seeing how their light curves change (see graph below) This is much like how we imaged the topography of Pluto • What we may discover: • New Worlds has the capability to detect molecular oxygen in the atmosphere. • Detection of the O2 A band (761 nm) in the visible is a direct indication for having plant life. • New Worlds will also be able to detect the H2O line at 960 nm. • This indicates the presence of water, and possibly water worlds. Another place where life could exist. • We will discover exo-solar systems with a wide variety of planet sizes • This will help us to understand the formation of solar systems, and understand planetary migration better  Shadow of a 16 petal mask, linear and log representation respectably We are looking for habitable planets much like Earth! M E V The telescope will fly into the shadow of a target star, created by the starshade This is what the image of Earth, Venus and Mars would look like from 10 pc away with use of a starshade. We truly live on a pale blue dot! Relevance to Astrobiology: We have the potential to observe biosignatures (such as the presence of H20, O2) in the spectra of the planets’ atmospheres This will infer whether or not the planet has life or not We can learn much about the formation of our solar system as well as others and determine if our system is unique We will discover many more terrestrial like planets that could potentially harbor life. Mission Status: Dr. Cash and his team are working on simulating the following: minimum amount of molecular oxygen that can be detected, minimum telescope diameter, minimum starshade diameter. He is completing a 2 year study under the NASA institute for Advanced Concepts and proposing for future NASA support. Current Parameters for NWO: Telescope D = 4m angular resolution = 0.026” spectral resolution= 100 starshade separation= 72,000km outer diameter= 50m # of petals = 16 inner working angle= 0.058” Substantial contributions have been made by Northrop Grumman, Goddard Space Flight Center and Ball Aerospace. Log graphs representing sigma detection displaying mirror diameter and resolution (respectively) vs. incrementing oxygen content, with the current parameters. O3 H2O H2O O2 O2 H2O H2O H2O O2