David Kipping

David Kipping
Kipping in 2019
Born	David Matthew Kipping 1983 or 1984 United Kingdom
Education	Cambridge University (MA, MSc) UCL (PhD)
Occupation(s)	Associate professor, astronomer, Youtuber
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomy, astrophysics, exomoons
Institutions	Columbia University
Thesis	The Transits of Extrasolar Planets with Moons  (2011)
Doctoral advisor	Giovanna Tinetti
YouTube information
Channel	Cool Worlds
Years active	2016–present
Genre	Science Communication
Subscribers	1M [1]
Views	95,167,989 [1]
Last updated: 15 February 2025
Website	www.coolworldslab.com

David Mathew Kipping is a British astronomer and associate professor at Columbia University, where he leads the Cool Worlds Lab. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

Early life and education

Kipping grew up in Warwickshire. He studied at the University of Cambridge, where he received an MA degree in 2006 and an MSc degree in 2007, both in Natural Sciences. ^[5] He subsequently obtained a PhD degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University College London in 2011. ^[6]

Career

Following the completion of his doctorate, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution for six months in 2011. He then undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University from 2011 to 2015, before joining Columbia University as an assistant professor in 2015. In 2016, Kipping launched the YouTube channel Cool Worlds to share his research topics with the wider public.

Along with Ingo Waldmann and Steve Fossey, Kipping discovered in 2009 that the exoplanet HD 80606b (previously known from radial velocity) transits its host star. ^[7]

In 2011, Kipping founded the Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler, a project that searches for exomoons, natural satellites of exoplanets, using data collected by the Kepler space telescope. ^[8]

In 2019, Kipping proposed a method of spaceflight known as the halo drive. ^[9]

References

1. "About Cool Worlds". YouTube.
2. "Astronomer David Kipping Named Sloan Research Fellow". Columbia News.
3. Plait, Phil (18 August 2016). "So What Exactly Is an "Alien Megastructure"?". slate.com.
4. Ciaccia, Chris (19 May 2020). "Astronomer puts odds on extraterrestrial life existing: 'Universe teeming with life ... the favored bet'". Fox News.
5. David Kipping - website of Columbia University
6. PhD thesis David Mathew Kipping: The Transits of Extrasolar Planets with Moons - open-access repository arXiv of Cornell University
7. "European Week of Astronomy and Space Sciences - Press Releases". Star-www.herts.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
8. "Why we're finally on the cusp of finding exomoons around other planets" . New Scientist.
9. Kipping, David (11 March 2019). "THE HALO DRIVE: FUEL-FREE RELATIVISTIC PROPULSION OF LARGE MASSES VIA RECYCLED BOOMERANG PHOTONS". arXiv: 1903.03423 [gr-qc].