Professor Abel Méndez is a planetary astrobiologist and Director, at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo. His research focuses on the habitability of potentially habitable

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

s. Méndez is also a NASA MIRS Fellow with research experience at NASA, and the

Arecibo Observatory The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science ...

. He is best known for being one of the scientists who developed the

Earth Similarity Index The Earth Similarity Index (ESI) is a proposed characterization of how similar a planetary-mass object or natural satellite is to Earth. It was designed to be a scale from zero to one, with Earth having a value of one; this is meant to simplif ...

, a proposed characterization of how similar a planetary-mass object or

natural satellite A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are often colloquially referred to as ''moons ...

is to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendez, Abel Living people 21st-century American astronomers Year of birth missing (living people)