Astrophysics: The Search for Distant Worlds
Dr. Knicole Colón, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, discusses how we discover exoplanets and what they can tell us about our universe. Dr. Colón shares her journey from New Jersey to Florida, Hawaii, and California, eventually landing at Goddard to work on the most advanced telescopes in history.
[00:00:12] Astrophysics at NASA Goddard covers everything from the birth of stars to cosmology—the study of the entire universe’s evolution. Dr. Knicole Colón focuses specifically on exoplanets. Today, we know of over 4,000 exoplanets in our galaxy alone, suggesting that almost every star you see in the night sky likely has at least one planet orbiting it.
Finding Planets: The Transit Method
[00:03:58] One of the primary tools for this search is the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission. Launched in 2018, TESS scans nearly the entire sky looking for small planets around the closest and brightest stars.
[00:04:53] To find these worlds, scientists use the Transit Method. This involves taking a series of pictures of a star and looking for regular, tiny dips in its brightness. These dips indicate that a planet is passing in front of the star from our point of view, blocking a small portion of its light.
[00:05:31] This field moves incredibly fast. In just one week, the number of confirmed TESS planets jumped from 98 to 107, with over 2,000 additional “candidate” planets waiting to be verified.
Analyzing Atmospheres with James Webb
[00:06:44] The next giant leap in astrophysics is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This massive observatory features a 6.5-meter gold mirror and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Because of its size, the telescope must launch folded up inside a rocket and then “unfold” once it reaches space.
[00:07:35] Webb will allow us to perform incredibly detailed measurements of exoplanet atmospheres. By observing starlight as it passes through a planet’s atmosphere during a transit, we can detect molecules like water (H2O). This helps scientists understand the composition of distant worlds and how they evolved over billions of years.
Open Data for Everyone
[00:08:27] One of the most exciting aspects of modern astrophysics is that the data is publicly open. Anyone, from professional scientists to curious students, can access data from missions like TESS and Webb to make their own discoveries about the universe.
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