NASA to Hold Live Event on the Search for Habitable Planets - April 7

From the press release:

April 1, 2015
MEDIA ADVISORY M15-050
Our Solar System and Beyond: NASA’s Search for Water and Habitable Planets

NASA Television will air an event from 1 – 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 7, featuring leading science and engineering experts discussing the recent discoveries of water and organics in our solar system, the role our sun plays in water-loss in neighboring planets, and our search for habitable worlds among the stars.
The event, which is open to the public, will take place in the Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW in Washington.

The panel also will highlight the fundamental questions NASA is working to answer through its cutting-edge science research: Where do we come from? Where are we going? Are we alone?
Panel participants include:

John Grunsfeld, astronaut and Science Mission Directorate associate administrator, NASA Headquarters, Washington
Ellen Stofan, chief scientist, NASA Headquarters
James Green, director of Planetary Science, NASA Headquarters
Jeffrey Newmark, interim director of Heliophysics, NASA Headquarters
Paul Hertz, director of Astrophysics, NASA Headquarters

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:
www.nasa.gov...

And later this month there is this science conference taking place:




So expect to hear quite a bit more news on the search for habitable planets in the month ahead.

All known potentially habitable worlds as of April 3 ranked by distance:



All known potentially habitable worlds as of April 3 ranked by their Earth Similarity Index (ESI) -the closer to 1.0 the better - :

a reply to: JadeStar

Its an exciting time to be a human being!

Look at all those planets! Imagine what is yet to be discovered! The horizons of humankind expand ever outward, and as targets grow in number, the hunger for exploration will push us into the far cosmos!

Assuming we do not blow our planet to bits before getting out there of course!

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: JadeStar

Its an exciting time to be a human being!

Look at all those planets! Imagine what is yet to be discovered! The horizons of humankind expand ever outward, and as targets grow in number, the hunger for exploration will push us into the far cosmos!

Assuming we do not blow our planet to bits before getting out there of course!

Agreed. Let's stick around for awhile, we're in the most interesting time in human history right now. It would be a shame if it all ended.

I cannot decide how I feel about these NASA announcements...usually they are a HUGE let down. I agree with others that in the spirit of discovery etc...yes it is an amazing time to be a member of the human race...but every time these things are announced it has so far ended in a lack luster supposition rather than something concrete to be built upon.

I am not sure we are prepared to encounter other worlds, as far as the prevailing sentiment expressed by and amongst our species. When whole groups of people are so vested in in their diametric view points, be they religious, social or otherwise I fear a spreading of our malicious mind-set will not bode well for the new planets we decide to visit.

Its interesting to watch NASA pull a 180 on this topic.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
Its interesting to watch NASA pull a 180 on this topic.

How are they pulling a 180?

originally posted by: BlueJacket
I cannot decide how I feel about these NASA announcements...usually they are a HUGE let down. I agree with others that in the spirit of discovery etc...yes it is an amazing time to be a member of the human race...but every time these things are announced it has so far ended in a lack luster supposition rather than something concrete to be built upon.

It's probably best to look at each announcement of a new discovery in the realm of exoplanets, astrobiology and related fields as building on previous ones.

Finding life in the universe and other worlds like Earth is a process, not one "Eureka!" moment but several. So each of these discoveries builds on the last. It's quite likely that your hopes are high (mine and many other people's are as well), so anything short of the discovery of extraterrestrial life is considered lack luster by comparison but think of it as a puzzle:

Part of the fun of assembling a puzzle is that you don't know how all the pieces fit together unless you investigate. While we'd all love to see the completed puzzle some of us are also very interested in putting the pieces together so these types of press conferences which often announce new discoveries are interesting from that point of view.

Someday soon when I have time, I plan on doing a whole brief history of exoplanet research post on this forum complete with links and videos. It's fascinating journey of how we got from only knowing the planets of our own solar system to now knowing that solar systems are around every star and planets like Earth may be common.

I am not sure we are prepared to encounter other worlds, as far as the prevailing sentiment expressed by and amongst our species. When whole groups of people are so vested in in their diametric view points, be they religious, social or otherwise I fear a spreading of our malicious mind-set will not bode well for the new planets we decide to visit.

Well the good news on that is that it will likely be many years before we'd have a space craft capable of visiting even the closest habitable planet. (Estimated at a 94% probability to be within 10 light years of Earth).

Interstellar travel while possible will be something we undertake at the soonest in the middle of this century and more realistically, towards the end.

In the time between now and the first interstellar probe mission to an exoplanet there will be a plethora of new telescopes and other instruments both on Earth and in space which will reveal a lot about our closest neighbors. Most scientists in the field feel we will discover life on another planet within the next 20-30 years. If they are right then there will be plenty of time for the people who hold the views you mentioned to incorporate this new information into their world view.

It won't be the first time either. Religious and other groups have come to terms with the Earth not being the center of the universe and there are far more religions on Earth which would accept a populated universe than there are which would have a hard time with it.

Giving this a bump to remind people that the event occurs today.

We need to work on space travel aka propulsion, warp or what ever first and formost. Even if we can see little green men waving at us from a far off world. We won't be able to visit.

originally posted by: Xcathdra
Its interesting to watch NASA pull a 180 on this topic.

I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Obviously, 10 or 20 years ago, science didn't know of any specific exoplanets that were potentially habitable because they had not yet discovered any exoplanets that were potentially habitable. The past 20 years of exoplanet research has changed that -- especially since NASA launched the Kepler probe, whose primary mission was to look for exoplanets, especially habitable ones.

Prior to these discoveries of the past several years, science speculated that there were almost surely exoplanets that have the right stuff for life as we know it (and maybe life as we don't know it), but that was only speculation until these planets were actually found.

That's how discovery often works: You may have speculative ideas, and then attempt to prove those speculative ideas through research and testing. Science speculated that exoplanets must exist, so they looked for them and found them. Then Science speculated that habitable worlds must exist, so then they actively looked for them and found them.

I mean, of course scientists felt it was possible (even likely) that these habitable worlds existed before they found them -- that's why they looked for them in the first place, and that's why they attempted to analyze the spectra of their atmospheres in the first place.

I think this sounds like a fun event and kudos
to NASA for deciding to have fun and be more interactive
with it footing the bill public.

That said I do hope an unidentified flying object sits
directly over 300 E street in DC that day so we can learn
about disc shaped ice crystals at 1500 feet.

The discussion just started, link is in the OP.

a reply to: Aleister

Thanks for the reminder. Watching it now.

a reply to: crappiekat

Very informative.

I really like the way they explain things so" uneducated minds in science" like me can understand. It sounds very exciting all the things they have planned for our future space exploration.

I really like the fact that they are talking to the younger generation and saying "WE NEED YOUR HELP". I was not aware of the citizen project which gets the backyard space explorer involved, and make them feel like they can make a difference.

Would suggest a watch to anyone who just wants to find out whats going on. Not a long and drawn out show.