NASA has redoubled its efforts to search for alien life beyond the solar system by launching the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) program.

Under NASA's guidance, research teams consisting of climate experts from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and other universities and institutions will develop a new model of the Earth's climate to aid them in hunting for other planets beyond our solar system that also possess a similar atmosphere and climate.

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The team will also include Earth scientists along with planetary scientists, heliophysicists and astrophysicists.

The space agency will also use data from the Kepler Space Telescope that has already identified more than 1,000 exoplanets after its launch some six years back. Scientists have determined five of these newly discovered exoplanets are similar to Earth in size and appear to be in the habitable zone of their star systems.

According to GISS climate modeler Anthony Del Genio, this is the time to begin considering these objects as more than planetary objects. This field has suddenly become more than an interest for astronomers and for climate scientists, as well.

Researchers that will be involved in the NExSS project will follow a system science approach for their study where each NASA division will focus on a specific scientific field.

For example, Earth scientists will study data about our planet while planetary scientists will study other worlds inside the solar system. Heliophysicists will observe the sun's interaction with its orbiting planets while astrophysicists will consolidate data from various stars and exoplanets using this systems science approach.

NASA is hoping scientists can learn more from these different disciplines by gathering research data and developing new methods to reach NExSS's goal to find extra terrestrial life beyond the solar system.

According to Jim Green, NASA's Director of Planetary Science, this interdisciplinary endeavor will strongly link all top research teams to achieve a more synthesized approach in the hunt for planets that possess potential signs of life.

NExSS's climate scientists will now use 30 years' worth of research and data from Earth's meteorology to create new climate models for rocky exoplanets similar to Earth. The initial stages of the program are slated to begin in 2017 and NASA has provided a budget of US$10 to 12 million for the entire project 

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