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The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (green structure in center of frame) between the two 8.4m mirrors of the LBT. (Credit: LBTO - Enrico Sacchetti)

UA Awarded a NASA "Nexus for Exoplanet System Science" (NExSS) Five-year Study

A multi-insitutional and multi-disciplinary team of astronomers, planetary scientists, chemists, and materials scientists has been selected by NASA for a 5-year-long 5.7 million dollar award to study how earth-like planets form and how they accrete the ingredients required for life. The team is led by Steward and LPL assistant professor Daniel Apai and will be part of NASA bold new program Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS). The UA-led team represents a large-scale and highly interdisciplinary effort and includes researchers from the National Optical Astronomical Observatory, the University of Chicago, Arizona State University, and the Planetary Science Institute. The group will combine astronomical observations and laboratory measurements with a new generation of planet formation simulation to model the origins of potentially life-bearing planets to help interpret exoplanet observations and to giude the development of NASA missions aiming to find life in planets around nearby stars.

The press release can be found HERE. You can find the Arizona Daily Star article HERE.

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