NASA Earth Science

NASA Earth Science, formerly called the NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE), formerly called Mission To Planet Earth (MTPE),^[1] is a NASA research program "to develop a scientific understanding of the Earth system and its response to natural and human-induced changes to enable improved prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards for present and future generations".^[2]

NASA's vision

To improve life here.
To extend life to there.
To find life beyond.

NASA's mission

To understand and protect our home planet.
To explore the Universe and search for life.
To inspire the next generation of explorers.

Earth science

"To improve life here" and "To understand and protect our home planet," NASA supports research in the Earth Sciences and, as part of its Earth Observing System (EOS), launches and maintains Earth observing satellites to monitor the state of the climate, atmospheric chemistry, ocean and land ecosystems. It was a NASA scientist, Dr. James Hansen, who first alerted the world to the dangers of global warming due to greenhouse gases emitted by human burning of fossil fuels. Earth Science research also provides the foundations of understanding for the search for extraterrestrial life through the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), in which the focus is often on the extreme conditions for life to survive.^[3]

References

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

↑ NASA Mission To Planet Earth, retrieved November 13, 2006
↑ Overview of the Earth Science Enterprise (ESE), NASA, retrieved November 13, 2006
↑ NASA Astrobiology Institute, retrieved November 13, 2006

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