General Astrophysics with the TESS Mission

The NASA Postdoctoral Program offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects. This specific opportunity focuses on using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to pursue astrophysics topics relevant to NASA's science goals beyond transiting exoplanet discovery. TESS has been performing a wide-field nearly-all-sky survey since 2018 with high-precision photometry capabilities, providing rich data for time-domain astrophysics investigations. Research areas include eclipsing binary stars, microlensing planets, stellar variability (rotation, flares, pulsations), extragalactic transients (supernovae, gravitational wave counterparts, AGN), and solar system objects (asteroids, comets). The fellowship is competitive and designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. These one- to three-year fellowships are hosted at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which also hosts several other time-domain astrophysics missions currently in operation (Swift, Fermi, NICER) and others in development (Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, LISA). Proposals that capitalize on more than one resource are encouraged.