Jennifer Wiseman is an astronomer who studies star forming regions of our galaxy using optical, radio, and infrared telescopes. Her career has involved oversight of national astronomical facilities as well as public science policy and discourse. In 1987 she co-discovered the periodic comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff as an undergraduate researcher at MIT. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University. In Part 1 of this interview with ESN, she shares some of the latest astronomical findings. In Part 2 she will share how science shapes her personal life of faith.
ESN: What are the most exciting frontiers of discovery right now in your field?
JW: Well, the two hottest topics right now in astronomy are 1) the detection of planets outside our solar system (we call them exoplanets), and 2) Dark energy—which is this mysterious force that seems to be accelerating the expansion of the universe.
ESN: What’s currently happening with the discovery of Exoplanets?
JW: In the exoplanet field the technology has improved so much in the last few years, that we’ve gone from not even knowing whether there are planets outside our solar system to now having confirmed nearly 1,000 of these exoplanet systems and almost 3,000 potential candidate systems that need more study. Most of these planets have been detected through indirect means because it’s hard to take an image of a tiny planet next to a very bright star; it gets lost in the glare. Instead, astronomers have developed techniques to detect planets around stars by looking at the effects the planets have on the star. So if a planet is orbiting in front of its parent star along our line of sight, we may not be able to see the planet itself, but we can see the total amount of starlight dipping periodically with every orbit as the planet blocks our view of part of the star. That tells us a lot about the size of that planet and about its distance from the star, and it tells us about the planet’s temperature and even its density. Through this method the Kepler space telescope has detected almost 3,000 systems that are potentially planetary systems. Another way planets are found is by noticing the mutual gravitational pull between the planet and its parent star that causes the star to appear to wobble with every orbit. So measuring the wobble of stars is another way of detecting planets. [Read more…] about Interview with Jennifer Wiseman, Part 1