Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, February 26, 2007 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium
The lecture will take place as scheduled, despite the ice and snow.

Webster Cash

"The New Worlds Observer: Opening Direct Study of Exo-planets Using External Occulters"

ABSTRACT -- This talk will present the concept of the New Worlds Observer. The project, funded by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (an independent agency funded by NASA) was the cover story for Nature magazine on July 7, 2006. The mission features a conventional quality telescope in space with a starshade occulter (~50m diameter) stationed about 50,000km away along the line of sight to a nearby star. Diffraction around the starshade is suppressed to very high levels by means of a newly developed apodizing shape. Simulations show that planetary systems can be mapped in detail and Earth-like planets identified to distances greater than 10 parsecs. Spectroscopy of the planets will enable the identification and study of water planets. As such, it has a realistic chance of finding evidence of life in other star systems. The New Worlds Observer uses only existing technologies. It has significantly lower cost, risk and schedule than the other approaches being studied for the finding of planets.

SPEAKER -- Dr. Webster Cash is director of the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a member of the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. His research is in developing new technologies for space observatories, especially in x-ray interferometry, x-ray spectroscopy, and techniques for direct optical observation of planets circling other stars. His current research on interferometry aims at imaging black holes from the MAXIM mission. His spectroscopy work involves making reflection gratings for the Constellation-X Mission. His work on exoplanet detection is currently looking at the use of external occulters to suppress the light of the central star.