Grants
This article was originally printed in the February 2006 issue of CLASnotes.
Planet ET-1 Discovered by UF Astronomer
Professor Jian Ge and the W.M. Keck Exoplanet
Tracker (photo courtesy Gainesville Sun)
against the backdrop of an artist’s rendition of
a very young, active star orbited by a planet
like the one recently discovered by UF
astronomer Jian Ge. Named ET-1, the planet is
one of the first companions ever found with a
star just 600 million years old (drawing courtesy
of P. Marenfeld and NOAO/AURA/NSF).
If there is life on distant planets in our universe, Astronomy Professor Jian Ge may very well be involved in its discovery.
Ge and his team of planet trackers have just confirmed the existence of a new planet and, thanks to an $875,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, finding life outside our solar system may not be so far behind.
Ge and colleagues within the department are in the process of building the world’s best planet tracker, which will increase the current planet survey speed by two orders of magnitude over traditional technology. Named the W.M. Keck Exoplanet Tracker, the researchers plan to use the new Doppler instrument to search roughly 1 million stars to detect thousands of planets and discover new solar systems where life may be possible. The tracker will be used at the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico for the next two years, and the team is hoping to receive additional funding to extend the survey to 15 years.
On January 11, Ge and colleagues at UF, Pennsylvania State University, Tennessee State University, the University of Texas and the Institute of Astrophysics in Spain’s Canary Islands announced the discovery of a new planet orbiting a young star 100 light-years away, located in the direction of the constellation Virgo. The team used a single-object planet tracker located at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The new Keck Exoplanet Tracker will allow for the observation of 60 objects at one time and look roughly 1000 light years into space, versus the current technology of 200 light years.
“Planet detection is a very challenging job,” Ge says. “We need high precision, therefore you aren’t able to look at many objects. This new instrument will allow us to get a much bigger sample and in 10 to 15 years we hope to have looked at a million stars. This is the first time this has ever been done in human history.”
Ge received his PhD in astronomy from the University of Arizona in 1998 and served as an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University before coming to UF in 2004. He and colleagues in the Sloan consortium at the Apache Point Observatory will collaborate on the largest ground-based astronomical survey in human history, in hopes of discovering thousands of new planets where life may be possible.
While planet ET-1—so named in part as an abbreviation for Exoplanet Tracker but also as a tribute to Steven Spielberg’s cinematic creature—is too close to its partner star to produce life, Ge is optimistic about finding life on at least one of the 10,000 planets his team hopes to discover.
“This is extremely important scientifically, but it is culturally important to the public as well,” he says. “We always wonder whether we are alone in the universe. This project is a huge step toward answering that question.”
—Buffy Lockette
Grants through the Division of Sponsored Research
November 2005: $2,525,189
SASSAMAN JR K E; TORRENCE C |
ANT |
MARINER PROPERTIES DEV INC |
$42,216 |
CHADWICK SITE TOPGRAPHIC MAPPING AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT |
GONZALEZ A H |
AST |
CALIFORNIA INST OF TECHNOLOGY JET PROPULSION LABORATORY NASA |
$65,777 |
LIFE BEFORE THE FALL: STAR FORMATION OF GLAAXIES IN GROUPS PRIOR TO CLUSTER ASSEMBLY AT Z-0.37 |
BOWES G E |
BOT |
MISCELLANEOUS DONORS UNRESTRICTED DONATION MULTIPLE SPONSORS |
$1,200 |
MISCELLANEOUS DONORS |
OPPENHEIMER D G |
BOT |
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$175,262 |
THE FLORAL GENOME PROJECT: ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE FL GENETIC PROGRAM AND PHYLOGENETIC TOOLS FOR EVOLUTION AND |
SCHUUR E A |
BOT |
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$5,520 |
REU SUPPLEMENT: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH CLIMATE CONTROLS OVERECOSYSTEM RESPIRATION USING ISOTOPES TO DETERMINE THE SOURCE |
SOLTIS D E; SOLTIS P S |
BOT |
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$317,134 |
THE FLORAL GENOME PROJECT:ORIGIN & EVOLUTION OF THE FLORIDA GENETIC PROGRAM AND PHYLOGENETIC TOOLS FOR EVOLUTIONARY AND |
BENNER S A |
CHE |
MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$203,022 |
DARWINIAN CHEMICAL SYSTEMS |
BENNER S A |
CHE |
NASA |
$200,536 |
RESURRECTING SRC HOMOLOGY 2 DOMANIS NEAR THE ORIGIN OF MULTICELULARITY |
KATRITZKY A R |
CHE |
FLEXSYS AMERICA L P |
$36,000 |
STRUCTURE ACTIVITY RELATIONSHIPS IN CISCOUS SUBSTANCES |
OMENETTO N |
CHE |
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV |
$3,638 |
EDITORSHIP WITH ELSEVIER SCIENCE |
REYNOLDS J R |
CHE |
EIC LABORATORIES INC U S AIR FORCE |
$304,995 |
HIGH MOBILITY STABLE CROSSLINKED CONDUCTIVE POLYMERS |
RICHARDSON D E |
CHE |
NATL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIGMS - GENERAL MEDICAL SCI |
$3,096 |
THE BIOINORGANIC CHEMISTRY OF NICKEL: THE UREASES |
LANE J S |
CRI |
DEPT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE U S DEPT OF JUSTICE |
$30,554 |
EVALUATION OF FAITH AND COMMUNITY INITIATIVE |
LANE J S; LANZA KADUCE L M |
CRI |
DEPT OF JUVENILE JUSTICE U S DEPT OF JUSTICE |
$213,888 |
EVALUATION OF FAITH AND COMMUNITY INITIATIVE |
GOULDING M; SMITH N J |
GEOG |
MACARTHUR FDTN, JOHN D & CATH |
$267,273 |
MIGRATORY FISH MONITORING AND CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECT FOR THE MADRE DE DIOS RIVER OF SOUTHERN PERU |
CHANNELL J E |
GEOL |
JOINT OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$8,022 |
UNDERGRADUATE SUPPLEMENT AWARD - MAGNETIC STRATIGRAPHY OF EXPEDITION 303 SEDIMENTS |
NEUHOFF P S |
GEOL |
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$78,845 |
SITE SPECIFIC ENERGETICS OF WATER IN ROCK-FORMING ZEOLITES |
PILYUGIN S; S NARANG A |
MAT |
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$58,541 |
ADAPTIVE DYNAMICS OF MACROBIAL POPULATIONS: PHYSIOLOGICAL MODELS OF GROWTH |
ZAPLETAL J; CENZER D A |
MAT |
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$138,000 |
SPECIAL MEETING (SM): YEAR IN LOGIC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA |
BAUDIS L |
PHY |
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$100,817 |
THE XENON DARK MATTER PROJECT: CONSTRUCTION AND UNDERGROUND DEPLOYMENT OF THE 1ST 100KG MODULE |
SORKIN R D |
PSY |
U S AIR FORCE AFOSR |
$154,823 |
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PERSONNEL ACT (IPA) ASSIGNMENT FOR DR. ROBERT SORKIN |
BJORNDAL K A; BOLTEN A B |
ZOO |
U F FOUNDATION |
$20,000 |
SEA TURTLE CONSERVATION |
BOLTEN A B; BJORNDAL K A |
ZOO |
U S DEPT OF COMMERCE NATL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE |
$16,956 |
MANAGEMENT OF THE SEA TURTLE ONLINE BIBLIOGRAPHY |
GUILLETTE JR L J; BERMUDEZ D S |
ZOO |
NATL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NICHD - CHLD HLTH & HUMAN DEV |
$400 |
MINORITY PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM |
GUILLETTE JR L J; CHAPMAN J S |
ZOO |
NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION |
$78,674 |
PREDICTORS OF PRIMATE ABUNDANCE: HOW POPULATIONS RESPOND TO STRESS |
OSENBERG C W |
ZOO |
SPRINGER-VERLAG |
$0 |
OECOLOGIA EDITORIAL OFFICE |