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Draft AO Astrophysics Small Explorers Released for Community Comment

4 February 2025

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is releasing a draft Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for community review and comment: the Draft 2025 Astrophysics Small Explorer (SMEX). The Astrophysics Small Explorers Program conducts Principal Investigator (PI)-led space science investigations relevant to SMD's astrophysics programs. Explorer investigations must address NASA’s goals to discover the origin, structure, evolution, and destiny of the Universe and search for Earth-like planets.

Participation is open to all categories of organizations or institutions, U.S. or non-U.S., including educational, industrial, and not-for-profit institutions, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and other Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs), NASA Centers, and other U.S. Government agencies.

Please send comments and questions on the draft via email only, to the Astrophysics Small Explorers Program Scientist, Doris Daou, at Doris.Daou@nasa.gov, using the subject line "DRAFT 2025 SMEX AO." The comment period for the Draft 2025 SMEX AO ends 21 February 2025.

Responses to comments will be given by email and posted in the Questions and Answers (Q&A) section on the Astrophysics Small Explorers Program Acquisition website. Similar comments may be aggregated and provided with a single response. Anonymity of persons/institutions who submit comments will be preserved.

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This cropped horizontal image has layers of semi-opaque rusty red colored gas and dust that starts at the bottom right and goes toward the top left. There are three prominent pillars rising toward the top left. The left pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red outlines.