NASA的天体物理部门已选出了一个由宾夕法尼亚州立大学领导的研究小组，以建造一种耗资1000万美元的尖端工具，以检测我们太阳能系统之外的行星。由宾夕法尼亚州立大学天文学和天体物理学助理教授Suvrath Mahadevan领导的团队在激烈的全国比赛之后被选中。该工具于2019年完成后，将成为NASA与国家科学基金会之间合作伙伴关系的核心，称为NASA-NSF系外行星观察研究计划（NN-explore）。
“We are privileged to have been selected to build this new instrument for the exoplanet community,” Mahadevan said. “This is a testament to our multi-institutional and interdisciplinary team of talented graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and senior scientists.” The instrument is named NEID – derived from the word meaning “to discover/visualize” in the native language of the Tohono O’odham, on whose land Kitt Peak National Observatory is located. NEID also is short for “NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler Spectroscopy.” NEID will detect planets by the tiny gravitational tug they exert on their stars.
“NEID will be more stable than any existing spectrograph, allowing astronomers around the world to make the precise measurements of the motions of nearby, Sun-like stars,” said Jason Wright, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State and a member of the science advisory team. “Our team will use NEID to discover and measure the orbits of rocky planets at the right distances from their stars to host liquid water on their surfaces.”
天文学和天体物理学系杰出教授兼负责人唐纳德·施耐德（Donald Schneider）说：“赢得这场比赛是一项巨大的荣誉，也是对我们的系外行星和可居住世界中心的认可。”许多NEID团队成员是研究生和博士后研究人员。施耐德补充说：“我们为我们的初级科学家是该开创性项目的重要组成部分而感到自豪。”
NEID Project Manager and Senior Scientist Fred Hearty said, “Building this instrument is a wonderful opportunity for Penn State and our partners. R&D here at Penn State established a foundation to advance the state-of-the-art in planet finding almost thirty years ago. Today’s Habitable-zone Planet Finder project is proving the entire system works as planned.”
NEID将在未来三年内在宾夕法尼亚州立大学公园校园的创新公园和合作机构的实验室建造。它将安装在亚利桑那州基特峰国家天文台（KPNO）的3.5米Wiyn望远镜上。NEID将为运营Kitt Peak望远镜的国家光天文天文台（NOAO）提供新的功能。NEID完成后，全世界的天文学家将可以使用这个最先进的星球查找器。
天文学家和宾夕法尼亚州立大学研究的屁股ociate Chad Bender, who will help to oversee the construction of the instrument, noted that “NEID’s capabilities are critical to the success of NASA’s upcoming exoplanet missions. NEID will follow-up on planets discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and also will identify exciting targets to be observed by the James Webb Space Telescope and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope.”
The NEID team is a multi-institutional collaboration, consisting of exoplanet scientists and engineers from Penn State, University of Pennsylvania, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, University of Colorado, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Macquarie University in Australia, Australian Astronomical Observatory, and Physical Research Laboratory in India. “NEID is a transformative capability in the search for worlds like our own, Mahadevan said.”
NASA和NSF于2015年2月建立了NN-Quecplore合作伙伴关系，以利用KPNO的3.5米Wiyn望远镜的全部NOAO份额，为科学界提供了基于地面的观察的工具和访问权限，并支持NASA太空天体物理学任务的观察。KPNO由NOAO代表NSF运营。NEID项目将由喷气推进实验室的系外行星勘探计划办公室代表NASA的天体物理学部门管理。
Filed Under:航空航天 +防御
