Just got back from majestic Sedona, Arizona, where my family and I spent Thanksgiving. Sedona is a charming and crazy amalgam of spectacular geology, amazing autumn foliage, exciting restaurants, and an eclectic mix of new age shops and centers. Believers of aura photos, energy vortices, and natural healing flock from all over the country to…
All posts by Daniel Apai
About Daniel Apai
Whales
I always found whales fascinating and after a recent workshop in Seattle, WA, I jumped on a whale-watching boat. It was great fun – we have seen a pair of humpback whales and a fin whale, all set in an amazing landscape.
Climate Stability and a Hike along a Triassic Coral Reef
After two hours of hike up on a rocky trail in the Italian Alps, finally I stand at an elevation just above 2,500 meters, staring at a breathtaking and unique mountain range, the Dolomites, that holds an exciting clue to the habitability of our planet. With gigantic sharp white-gray peaks emerging from the lush green of Alpine meadows, these mountains rise where the…
Building Planetary Systems
Mikayla Mace is a UA journalism graduate student who is writing a nice series of article on our Earths in Other Solar Systems work. She has just posted a piece on our Genesis Database, the mother of all planet formation simulations, featuring Gijs Mulders and Fred Ciesla. The Genesis Database will help us understand how habitable earth-like…
The Future of Exoplanet Research
By Daniel Apai Includes interview with Nick Siegler and Shawn Domagal-Goldman Over the weekend, at the Hilton on the San Diego Bay, a small group met to speak about the present and future of NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration program. To someone not in the field of exoplanets the talks and debates may have resembled science fiction: giant space…
Launching Toward Other Earths – EOS Updates from the PI
News and updates on NASA’s Earths in Other Systems Project from PI Daniel Apai. May 10, 2015. Sunday early morning with a coffee in my hand, sitting next to giant blooming Saguaro cacti and citrus trees in Tucson with the spectacular Catalina mountains in the background. Two tiny hummingbirds angrily hover around each other in the air,…
NExSS Kick-off Meeting at NASA HQ
Two weeks ago NASA has announced its new Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, which may prove to be a major change in the way NASA will fund exoplanet science in the future. Our UA-led team was part of the first selection and I, the principal investigator of our project, joined the program’s two-day kick-off meeting at…
Extrasolar Storms Talk Video from HST 25 Symposium
My Extrasolar Storms talk, given at the Hubble 25 Symposium, is now available online – check it out if you like a mix of the Hubble Space Telescope, iron raindrops, gigantic storms, and methods to map extrasolar planets: https://tinyurl.com/pjjbyv4
The Best Astrobiology and Exoplanet Books
I am often asked to recommend books on astrobiology, habitable exoplanets, and extraterrestrial life. There are many great books in these exciting fields, but there are a number of stand-outs that I highly recommend. Below is a gradually growing list of my favorite ones. Is your favorite book missing? Add other book suggestions in the…
On to A New Year and New Exoplanets!
The 2014 year has brought much excitement in the field of extrasolar planets and 2015 is set to be at least as exciting as the past year: new powerful adaptive optics systems are searching the northern and southern skies for new exoplanets and Kepler2 should start bringing a large number of new planet candidates! Just…