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#NASAWFIRST
Dark Energy and Exoplanets NASA’s WFIRST Mission
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Dark Energy and Exoplanets NASA’s WFIRST Mission
Dominic Benford (NASA)
Jason Kalirai (STScI)
Jason Rhodes (NASA JPL)#NASAWFIRST
Maggie Turnbull (SETI Institute)
Dark Energy and Exoplanets NASA’s WFIRST Mission
#NASAWFIRST
Neil Gehrels (1952-2017)
Mapping the Universe with WFIRST
@JasonKalirai (STScI)#NASAWFIRST
The First Telescope
The First TelescopeToday’s
#NASAWFIRST
The Universe, seen through Hubble’s Eye
#NASAWFIRST
The First TelescopeToday’s
#NASAWFIRST
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Largest and most powerful telescope ever Launching in 1.5 years!
The First TelescopeTomorrow’s
#NASAWFIRST
But, imagine you could only see the world through a telephoto lens
Hubble’s Camera
WFIRST’s Camera
The Hubble Deep Field
#NASAWFIRST
The Hubble Deep Field
#NASAWFIRST
The Hubble Deep Field
#NASAWFIRST
The “Speed” of WFIRST is Unprecedented
WFIRST - Hubble X 100A WFIRST Deep Field
A New Window on the Universe - 1,000,000 galaxies at a time
Hubble’s Field
Hubble - a spectacular startThe Hubble Ultra Deep Field
seeing the Universe, 10,000 galaxies at a time
#NASAWFIRST
Hubble Peering into our Galactic Neighborhood Seeing Galaxies as Collections of Stars - The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury Program (PI J. Dalcanton)
#NASAWFIRST
#NASAWFIRST
Exploring the WorldHow I used to explore planet Earth How my kids explore planet Earth today
#NASAWFIRST
How I used to explore planet Earth How my kids explore planet Earth today
Exploring the World
#NASAWFIRST
Innovation Due to High-Resolution, Wide-Field Telescopes
The Landsat Telescopes
First Detailed Map of Planet Earth
#NASAWFIRST
The WFIRST Telescope is a Former Spy SatelliteIt was Designed for High-Resolution, Wide-Field Imaging
#NASAWFIRST
The WFIRST Telescope is a Former Spy SatelliteIt was Designed for High-Resolution, Wide-Field Imaging
#NASAWFIRST
First Detailed Map of the Universe
Former Spy Satellite Transferred to NASA Science
Revealing the Dark Universe with WFIRST
#NASAWFIRST@jason__rhodes
(NASA JPL)
The Universe as a Pie Chart
#NASAWFIRST
Dark Matter is Driving the Growth of Galaxies
#NASAWFIRST
A remnant of the Big Bang (Cosmic Microwave Background)Galaxies in the Distant Universe
(Hubble Ultra Deep Field)
Gravitational Lensing
#NASAWFIRST
Dark matter causes light to follow a distorted path. The background galaxy
A Penny in a Pool
#NASAWFIRST
Dark Energy: An Accelerating Expansion
#NASAWFIRST NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
Push-Pull: Dark Energy vs Dark Matter
#NASAWFIRST
Dark Energy Is a repulsive force
Affects the speed at which the Universe expands Causes everything to move away from everything else
Dark Matter Affected by the attractive force of gravity
Affects how “clustered” objects are Causes objects to want to move towards one another
One Possible Future Dark Energy will eventually rip the Universe apart!
…sorry.To be sure, lets go and measure both dark matter and dark energy!
#NASAWFIRST
WFIRST willmeasure galaxy shapes to map dark matter and measure
the growth of galaxies over the Universe’s life
#NASAWFIRST
WFIRST willmap the positions of galaxies to establish a cosmic standard
ruler to measure the Universe’s expansion history
#NASAWFIRST
WFIRST willdiscover exploding stars (supernovae) across cosmic time
to establish precise distances to galaxies
#NASAWFIRST
WFIRST’s Dark Universe RoadmapGalaxy Shapes Galaxy Positions
Expansion HistoryExpansion History (also Growth of Structure)
Growth of Structure (also Expansion History)
Determine the Universe’s End Fate!
Standard Candle
Maggie Turnbull (SETI Institute)
Imaging Other Worlds with WFIRST
#NASAWFIRST
Are there Other Living Worlds Near Us?
TH E EXO P L A NET S TA R S H A DE M IS S IO N:TH E P R O M IS E , TH E CH A L L ENG E & TH E P L A N
A R E WE R EA L LY A L O NE?
Are there Other Living Worlds Near Us?
IS
Image Credit: Martin Vargic
There are currently more than 4000 exoplanets known…
…and WFIRST will study the nearest and brightest ones.
…and seek to discover a fewmore around Suns like ours
?
??
What can we learn from a dot?
?
?
What can we learn from a dot?
“Vegetation Jump”(indicates plants)
Carbon Dioxide(suggests possible volcanic activity) Methane
(indicates presenceof anaerobic
bacteria)
Water Vapor(suggests habitability)
Oxygen & Ozone(produced by
living organisms)
Wavelength
“Blue Sky”(measures total
amount of atmosphere)
Direct imaging with a space telescope and a starshade
“Once we lose our fear of being tiny, we
Carl Sagan