NASA Exoplanet Update

Dr. John Callas, NASA/JPL provides an update on NASA Exoplanet work. This was at the 21st Annual International Mars Society Convention, held at the Pasadena Convention Center in Southern California from Aug 23-26, 2018.

There is work on improving internal occulters and then external starshades to block light from stars so that exoplanets can be seen.

They are working on ground-based telescopes that can have improved sensitivity to radial velocity. This will enable detection of smaller planets with this technique and enable the mass of exoplanets to be determined. They will follow up TESS observations.