A team of researchers from the Hampton University, alongside Professor William Moore, have been chosen by NASA to manage the Living, Breathing Planet Project, a part of NExSS or NASA Exoplanet System Science, which will be aiming to determine habitability on Mars and other planets to form guidelines for identifying what could support life on other planets out there.

According to Moore, the HU Atmospheric and Planetary Science department will be bringing its expertise in the field of planetary science and atmospheric measurements together with NASA's partners and the rest of the university and the industry to understand what planetary observations can tell about the likelihood of life in space.

The team will be employing a multi-disciplinary approach into investigating the way stars utilize stellar winds and magnetic fields strip or siphon away atmospheres from planets orbiting them. Moore will be leading researchers not just from HU but those from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Virginia Tech, the Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Virginia, the National Institute of Aerospace, the University of Maryland College Park and Science Systems and Applications, Inc. to explore how losing hydrogen as well as other atmospheric compounds dramatically changes planets in the solar system.

Investigations will be carried out for various locations, where data will be collected using spacecraft and telescopic technology. Atmospheric and geochemical sampling will take place, as well as telescopic observations and remote sensing using detailed physical models.

"NExSS is a new way for NASA to bring together its broad spectrum of talent to illuminate problems of fundamental significance to humanity," said Moore, adding the HU team is excited to participate in the program, most especially that it will be taking on a leadership role.

Other teams participating in NExSS come from the Berkeley/Stanford University, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, the University of Wyoming, Penn State University, the University of Maryland, Yale University, the University of Nebraska-Kearney and the University of California, Santa Cruz. These teams were chosen based on proposals submitted to NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

NExSS will be headed by Ames Research Center's Natalie Batalha, NExScl's Dawn Gelino and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies' Anthony del Genio. Since NASA launched the Kepler space telescope about six years ago, over 1,000 exoplanets have already been discovered, with thousands more lined up awaiting confirmation. According to Jim Green, Director of Planetary Science for NASA, climate and planetary scientists, not just astronomers, find benefit in studying exoplanets.

Photo: Mads Bødker | Flickr