Pitesky: Welcome to the NASA's PlanetQuest Podcast, Episode 2. I'm Dr. Jo Pitesky, a scientist working on the SIM PlanetQuest mission.
Are we alone in the universe? Are there planets around other suns that, like Earth, might harbor life? Thanks to a recent technology breakthrough on a key NASA planet-finding project, we may be closer than ever to answering those questions.
(Ambient sound of observatory control room)
On a crystal clear, star-filled night at Hawaii's Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, NASA engineers successfully suppressed the blinding light of three stars, including the well-known Vega, down to 1/100th of their original brightness. This breakthrough will enable scientists to study the faint dust discs around stars, where planets might be forming. Normally these discs are hidden by the glare of the starlight.
Dr. Jim Fanson is project manager of the Keck Interferometer.
Fanson: For the first time we've been able to combine the light from the world's two largest telescopes in what we call an interferometer through an instrument we call the nuller that allows us to block the light from a nearby star and examine the region right around the star. We're interested in studying the properties of dust.
Pitesky: Tucked inside that dust might be planets as small as Earth, which we're not able to see with current telescopes. Most scientists believe Earth-size planets are the most likely to harbor life.
In 2006, the Keck Interferometer will begin a survey of nearby stars, looking in particular for those with relatively little dust. Those might make good candidates for NASA's future Terrestrial Planet Finder missions, which are designed to discover and characterize other Earths.
Fanson: Whether there are Earthlike planets around other stars is something that's been postulated and speculated about since the ancient Greeks.
Pitesky: Combining information from all of NASA's planet-hunting missions will provide a complete picture of possible Earth-like planets: how big they are, whether they are warm enough for life, and if their atmospheres show chemical signatures of current life. For NASA's PlanetQuest, this Dr. Jo Pitestky.
