While arguably the most exciting endeavor in the galaxy, exoplanet research, and the broader astrophysics research enterprise are very much subject to human fallacies. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the profession and lack of training can frequently cause transparency, integrity, and equity to be deprioritized and neglected. Progress requires the development of dedicated and efficiently accessible open resources in relevant training and mentorship.
2023 was declared the Year of Open Science by NASA to promote open science practices and increase participation in science. NASA’s resulting initiative funded key programs and resources, including the development of Exocore by AstroMusers. ExoCore is part of ScienceCore and constitutes an open science curriculum for enhanced reproducibility and equity in exoplanet research.
ExoCore curriculum covers open science databases, data structures, catalogs, software, collaborations, tools, cloud computing resources, citizen science projects, and journals in the exoplanet research field. It constitutes a network of Jupyter notebooks containing reproducible workflows.
ExoCore aims to:
- widen the use of open science practices in the field,
- facilitate and democratize entry into exoplanet research for students of all levels and professional researchers with limited previous exposure to exoplanet research,
- facilitate new discoveries in the field, and
- help diversify the exoplanet research community.
ExoCore is funded by a NASA grant, 80NSSC23K0865 (September 2023 – August 2025), and a McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences (MCSS) WashU internal grant.
Please refer to this presentation and worksheet of a workshop our team organized during AAS 245 in National Harbor, Maryland, on January 13, 2025, sponsored by a AAS Education & Professional Development (AAS-EPD) grant.