Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM
Monday, April 11, 2011 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium
Mark Clampin
"Exoplanet Hunting Technology"
ABSTRACT -- The search for exoplanets and characterization of their properties has seen increasing success over the last few years. In excess of 500 exoplanets are known and Kepler has ~1000 additional candidates. Recently, progress has been made in direct imaging planets, both from the ground and in space. This presentation will discuss the history and current state of technology used for such discoveries as well as those technologies that are currently under development and needed to make the next big leap in exoplanet detection, characterization, and imaging.
SPEAKER -- Dr. Mark Clampin is currently the JWST Observatory Project Scientist at GSFC. Dr. Clampin is a Co- Investigator on the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) science where he served as the ACS Detector Scientist with responsibility for delivery of the ACS flight focal planes. Previously, Dr. Clampin was a Scientist at STScI, where he gained ten years experience with HST servicing missions, instrument commissioning and science operations at STScI. He served as manager of the ACS Instrument Group at STScI from inception through the successful completion SM3B servicing mission orbital verification for ACS. In this capacity he managed developed of the ACS ground system, including data processing pipeline, GO support and instrument calibration planning. Dr. Clampin is the Principal Investigator of the Exosolar Planetary Imaging Coronagraph (EPIC), a technology demonstration for exoplanet missions (TDEM). Dr. Clampin is a member of the team that discovered the exoplanet Fomalhaut-B with ACS.