In search of new worlds: NASA's astronomical search for origins

A curiosity for who we are..., where did we come from..., who else is out there..., has been a motivation for exploration from ancestral gatherings around the tribal fire to sophisticated musings at the "electronic hearth" of our computers. NASA's Astronomical Search for Origins (ASO) science theme has brought together a broad array of scientific investigations and technological means to address these most challenging questions. ASO's goals are to understand how galaxies formed in the early universe, to understand how stars and planetary systems form and evolve., and to determine whether habitable or life-bearing planets exist around other stars in our solar neighborhood. This last goal, to find and to characterize planets and planetary systems around other stars, perhaps to image that "pale blue dot" that will tie the "new world" of humanity's next era of exploration, this is the purpose of NASA's Navigator Program: In Search of New Worlds. This paper describes the missions, the scientific endeavors, and the network of technology investments that are the Navigator Program, and which are at the heart of the Astronomical Search for Origins.