FINESSE
FINESSE • Missions & Center • Proposed
Overview:
Proposed for launch in 2017 as part of NASA's Explorers Program, FINESSE
would take the first "family portrait" of extrasolar planets, or
exoplanets. FINESSE is the first mission dedicated to finding out what
exoplanet atmospheres are made of, what conditions or processes are
responsible for their composition, and how our own solar system fits
into the larger family of planets.
The last 15 years have witnessed extraordinary success in finding exoplanets; ground-based surveys and robotic space missions have collectively indentified hundreds of planets outside of our solar system. The number of candidate planets detected is now in the thousands.
FINESSE is designed to take the next step - probing the atmospheres of these far off worlds.
IPAC's role:
The FINESSE Science Data System is located at IPAC and consists of several components: computer processing and storage, an automated, version controlled science data pipeline for the data processing, a stable maintained computing environment, an archive for the Science Team, and a web-accessible archive for delivery of required data products to the public and science community.
