Dark Energy and Exoplanets NASA’s WFIRST Mission EtáÇÉ ... · Dark Matter Affected by the...

#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

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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

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What can we learn from a dot?

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?

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