Aurelie Heritier Selected for 2009 Space Science Program in Austria: "Exoplanets: Discovering and Characterizing Earth Type Planets"

AAE graduate student Aurelie Heritier was selected for and attended the 2009 Alpbach space science and space technology program. Organized by the Aeronautics and Space Agency of Austria and co-sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the national space authorities of its member and cooperating states, the space science and technology program is open to 60 selected young science and/or engineering students and graduates from among the member and cooperating states of ESA. Participants are given the opportunity to expand and strengthen their knowledge of selected space issues. This year, the focus was innovative mission concepts aiming to increase our knowledge of extrasolar planets. Such future missions will increase the number of known planetary systems and add to knowledge of the physical characteristics of the planets themselves. A particular emphasis was Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of other stars since these planets could harbor life. Aurelie and her group designed a mission to place an astrophysical observatory in an orbit near the Sun-Earth L2 libration point. For more information, see http://www.summerschoolalpbach.at/