Daniel Apai's Blog on Exoplanet Exploration and Astrobiology
NASA selected SpaceX as launch provider for our Pandora Exoplanet Space Telescope. Pandora will look at 20 particularly exciting exoplanets and their host stars. The University of Arizona will provide Mission Operations and I lead the Pandora Exoplanets Working Group. Look out for more news as we approach T-0! Visit the Pandora Mission site to…
After months of preparation and sorting out the logistics, it is finally here! With the arrival of a special instrument to Tucson, I am very excited to start a new lab for our Nautilus Space Observatory project at The University of Arizona. The crate weighs about as much as an elephant and holds a cutting-edge,…
I am very excited that our NASA Pandora mission passed a major milestone as it moves closer to launch this Fall! Congratulations to PI Elisa Quintana, our amazing Pandora team, and our partners at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Blue Canyon Technologies, and NASA Ames Research Center on completing the integration…
Over the winter break, my family visited New Mexico’s White Sands National Park. The Park offers fantastic scenery and we hiked deep into the dune field. Trekking through the pristine white dunes was a beautiful and unique experience! Although it looks like pristine snow, the glistening dunes are made of gypsum. Spectacular scenery and it…
As we approach the end of 2024, it was a great time to gather our research group for a photo just outside Steward Observatory. I feel fortunate to work with such a great group! From left to right: Fuda Nguyen, Veronica Klawender, Connor Young, Brittany Miles, Kevim Hardegree-Ullman, Chaucer Langbert, Matthew Murphy, Rachael Amaro, Martin…
The Explorers Club is a famed group of explorers who have led scientific expeditions all over our planet – and beyond – for over a century. I recall reading – as a teenager – inspiring stories in the National Geographic about expeditions conducted by The Explorers Club. Given the long-standing excellence of TEC in scientific expeditions and advancing human…
The AAS Nova featured a nice article by Lexi Gault on our new paper in which Fuda Nguyen and I propose that the polar regions of brown dwarfs (and most gas giant exoplanets) are different from the equatorial and mid-latitude regions: The poles are in a different circulation regime (vortex-dominated) – this means that they have different…
Exoplanet science is one of the most rapidly expanding fields of modern physical sciences: Countless new measurements are made, thousands of papers published annually, and the number of exoplanets and planet candidates discovered is rapidly approaching 6,000 – and set to accelerate! What really drives this discovery? What will the future of exoplanet science bring? Which…
Just completed a wonderful trip to D.C. to the AAAS Fellows Forum and a visit to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. I was honored to be elected a AAAS Fellow and enjoyed participating in the Fellows Forum, celebrating the new Fellows at the 150th Anniversary of the program. It was thrilling to share this honor…
I am honored to be elected a 2023 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society, in recognition of my “distinguished contributions to the field of astrobiology and astrophysics, particularly for advancements in understanding of habitable exoplanets and planetary systems.” The prestigious AAAS Fellows program is over 150…