Postdoctoral Scientists Eligible For Stipends To Study
Exoplanets
NASA announced Wednesday the new Carl Sagan Postdoctoral
Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration, created to inspire the next
generation of explorers seeking to learn more about planets, and
possibly life, around other stars.
Planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, are being
discovered at a staggering pace, with more than 300 currently
known. Decades ago, long before any exoplanets had been found, the
late Carl Sagan imagined such worlds, and pioneered the scientific
pursuit of life that might exist on them. Sagan was an astronomer
and a highly successful science communicator.
NASA's new Sagan fellowships will allow talented young
scientists to tread the path laid out by Sagan. The program will
award stipends of approximately $60,000 per year, for a period of
up to three years, to selected postdoctoral scientists. Topics can
range from techniques for detecting the glow of a dim planet in the
blinding glare of its host star, to searching for the crucial
ingredients of life in other planetary systems.
"We are investing in our nation's best and brightest in an
emerging field that is tremendously inspiring to the public," said
Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in
Washington.
The Sagan Fellowship will join NASA's new Einstein Postdoctoral
Fellowship in Physics of the Cosmos and the Hubble Postdoctoral
Fellowship in Cosmic Origins. All three fellowships represent a new
theme-based approach, in which fellows will focus on compelling
scientific questions, such as "are there Earth-like planets
orbiting other stars?"
"NASA's science-driven mission portfolio, its cultivation of
young talent to pursue cutting-edge research, and the decision to
commit its genius to a question of transcendent cultural
significance, would have thrilled Carl," said Ann Druyan, Sagan's
widow and collaborator, who continues to write and produce.
"That this knowledge will be pursued in his name, as he joins a
triumvirate of the leading lights of 20th century astronomy, is a
source of infinite pride to our family," said Druyan. "It signifies
that Carl's passion to engage us all in the scientific experience,
his daring curiosity and urgent concern for life on this planet, no
longer eclipse his scientific achievements."
A call for Sagan Fellowship proposals went out to the scientific
community earlier this week, with selections to be announced in
February 2009.
"There is an explosion of interest in the field," said Charles
Beichman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Now we are going down a scientific path that Carl Sagan originally
blazed, torch in hand, as he led us through the dark." Beichman is
executive director of NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which will
administer the fellowship program.
Recently, NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have made
landmark observations of hot, Jupiter-like planets orbiting other
stars. The telescopes detected methane and water in the planets'
atmospheres -- the same molecules that might serve as tracers of
life if discovered around smaller, rocky planets in the future. In
a 1994 paper for the journal Nature, Sagan and colleagues used
these and other molecules to identify life on a planet -- Earth.
They used NASA's Galileo spacecraft to observe the molecular
signatures of our "pale blue dot," as Sagan dubbed Earth, while the
spacecraft flew by.
"Only a select few scientists carry the insight, vision and
persistence to open entire new vistas on the cosmos," said Neil
deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and Frederick P. Rose director of
the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in
New York. "We know about Einstein. We know about Hubble. Add to
this list Carl Sagan, who empowered us all -- scientists as well as
the public -- to see planets not simply as cosmic objects but as
worlds of their own that could harbor life." The fellowships
were announced at the planetarium today.
NASA's Kepler mission, which Sagan championed in his last years,
will launch next year and will survey hundreds of thousands of
nearby stars for Earth-like worlds, some of which are likely to
orbit within the star's water-friendly "habitable zone" favorable
for life as we know it.
JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are
conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Caltech manages
JPL for NASA. JPL also managed the Galileo mission.