Eileen Gonzales

Last updated
Eileen Gonzales
Alma mater City University of New York, San Francisco State University
Scientific career
Fields Astrophysics, astronomy, exoplanets, brown dwarves, low-mass stars
Institutions Cornell University, American Museum of Natural History
Thesis Understanding Atmospheres Across the Stellar-Substellar Boundary  (2020)
Doctoral advisor Jacqueline K. Faherty

Eileen Gonzales is an American astrophysicist and postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University, where her research focuses on exoplanets and brown dwarfs. She is also a co-founder and lead organizer of #BlackInPhysics, a campaign to recognize and celebrate Black physicists and amplify their work.

Contents

Early life and education

Gonzales grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She studied astrophysics at Michigan State University, and obtained her Master's in Physics from San Francisco State University. [1] [2] She joined the Graduate Center of the City University of New York for her graduate studies, obtaining an MA from Hunter College, an MPhil in Physics, and her PhD in 2020. [3] [4] During her doctoral research, she investigated the atmospheric conditions of low-mass stars and brown dwarves. [5] [6] [7] [8]

Research career

Gonzales is a 51 Pegasi b Fellow at the Department of Astronomy at Cornell University, [9] where she combines techniques and knowledge from observational astronomy and theoretical astrophysics to study the atmospheric conditions of exoplanets. [10] [11] In particular, she works on translating techniques initially developed to study the clouds of brown dwarfs to study atmosphere of other substellar objects, such as gas giant exoplanets. [12] [13] She is also a visiting scientist at the American Museum of Natural History. [14]

Outreach and advocacy

Gonzales is involved with science education and outreach programs. During her doctoral studies she worked at the American Museum of Natural History, supervising and mentoring high school students and teaching astronomy. [15] [16]

Gonzales was also a lead organizer of the first #BlackInPhysics Week alongside Charles D. Brown II and Jessica Esquivel, leading an initiative that aimed to increase the recognition of Black physicists and celebrate their contributions to science. [17] The campaign was inspired by the success of similar #BlackInX programs, such as Black Birders Week, and was supported by organizations including Nature Physics , [18] the American Institute of Physics, [19] Physics Today , [20] and Physics World . [21] BlackInPhysics also set out to create a community of support for Black physicists, raise awareness of the social and political challenges faced by Black physicists, and provide more visibility to Black role models in science. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown dwarf</span> Type of substellar object larger than a planet

Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that have more mass than the biggest gas giant planets, but less than the least massive main-sequence stars. Their mass is approximately 13 to 80 times that of Jupiter (MJ)—not big enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen (1H) into helium in their cores, but massive enough to emit some light and heat from the fusion of deuterium (2H). The most massive ones can fuse lithium (7Li).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rogue planet</span> Planets not gravitationally bound to a star

A rogue planet, also termed a free-floating planet (FFP) or an isolated planetary-mass object (iPMO), is an interstellar object of planetary mass which is not gravitationally bound to any star or brown dwarf.

An object with the spectral type T is either a brown dwarf or young free-floating planetary-mass object. An directly imaged exoplanet with a young age can also be a T-dwarf. T dwarfs are colder than L dwarfs, but warmer than Y dwarfs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross 458</span> Star in the constellation Virgo

Ross 458, also referred to as DT Virginis, is a binary star system in the constellation of Virgo. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 9.79 and is located at a distance of 37.6 light-years from the Sun. Both of the stars are low-mass red dwarfs with at least one of them being a flare star. This binary system has a circumbinary sub-stellar companion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planetary-mass object</span> Size-based definition of celestial objects

A planetary-mass object (PMO), planemo, or planetary body is, by geophysical definition of celestial objects, any celestial object massive enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium, but not enough to sustain core fusion like a star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SIMP J013656.5+093347</span> Possible exoplanet in the constellation Pisces

SIMP J013656.5+093347 is a brown dwarf or planetary mass object at 19.9 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces. It belongs to the spectral class T2.5 and its position shifts due to its proper motion annually by about 1.24 arcsec in the right ascension.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2MASS J00361617+1821104</span> Star in the constellation Pisces

2MASS J00361617+1821104 is a brown dwarf, located in 28.6 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces. It was discovered in 2000 by I. Neill Reid et al. Kinematically, it does not belong to any known moving group, been grouped with other "field stars".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2MASS J21392676+0220226</span> Brown dwarf star in the constellation Aquarius

2MASS J21392676+0220226 is a brown dwarf located 34 light-years from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. Its surface is thought to be host to a massive storm, resulting in large variability of its color. It is a member of the Carina-Near moving group. This brown dwarf was discovered in the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2MASS J03552337+1133437</span> Brown dwarf in the constellation Taurus

2MASS J03552337+1133437 is a nearby brown dwarf of spectral type L5γ, located in constellation Taurus at approximately 29.8 light-years from Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PSO J318.5−22</span> Extrasolar free-floating planet

PSO J318.5−22 is an extrasolar object of planetary mass that does not orbit a parent star, it is an analog to directly imaged young gas giants. There is no consensus yet among astronomers whether the object should be referred to as a sub-brown dwarf, as a rogue planet or as a young brown dwarf. It is approximately 80 light-years away and belongs to the Beta Pictoris moving group. The object was discovered in 2013 in images taken by the Pan-STARRS PS1 wide-field telescope. PSO J318.5-22's age is inferred to be 23 million years, the same age as the Beta Pictoris moving group. Based on its calculated temperature and age, it is classified under the brown dwarf spectral type L7.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Backyard Worlds</span> NASA-funded citizen science project

Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 is a NASA-funded citizen science project which is part of the Zooniverse web portal. It aims to discover new brown dwarfs, faint objects that are less massive than stars, some of which might be among the nearest neighbors of the Solar System, and might conceivably detect the hypothesized Planet Nine. The project's principal investigator is Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tucana-Horologium association</span> Large stellar association

The Tucana-Horologium association (Tuc-Hor), or Tucana Horologium moving group, is a stellar association with an age of 45 ± 4 Myr and it is one of the largest stellar associations within 100 parsecs. The association has a similar size to the Beta Pictoris moving group (BPMG) and contains, like BPMG, more than 12 stars with spectral type B, A and F. The association is named after two southern constellations, the constellation Tucana and the constellation Horologium.

WASP-69, also named Wouri, is a K-type main-sequence star 164 light-years away. Its surface temperature is 4782±15 K. WASP-69 is slightly enriched in heavy elements compared to the Sun, with a metallicity Fe/H index of 0.10±0.01, and is much younger than the Sun at 2 billion years. The data regarding starspot activity of WASP-69 are inconclusive, but spot coverage of the photosphere may be very high.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WISE 1534–1043</span> Brown dwarf in the constellation Libra

WISE 1534–1043 is a brown dwarf, Class Y, the coolest class, visible only in the infrared. It was accidentally discovered via the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.

References

  1. ↑ Gonzales, Eileen; Fries, Adam; Cool, Adrienne (2015-01-01). "Testing the refurbished 30-inch Leuschner telescope and its exoplanet detection capabilities". American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #225. 225: 258.04. Bibcode:2015AAS...22525804G.
  2. ↑ "Eileen Gonzales Bio". ecgonzales.github.io. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  3. ↑ Gonzales, Eileen (2020-09-01). "Understanding Atmospheres Across the Stellar-Substellar Boundary". Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects.
  4. ↑ "CUNY Astro – Astronomy & Astrophysics Research at CUNY". cunyastro.org. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  5. ↑ Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Gagné, Jonathan; Burgasser, Adam J.; Mamajek, Eric E.; Gonzales, Eileen C.; Bardalez Gagliuffi, Daniella C.; Marocco, Federico (2018-11-16). "A Late-type L Dwarf at 11 pc Hiding in the Galactic Plane Characterized Using Gaia DR2". The Astrophysical Journal. 868 (1): 44. arXiv: 1805.01573 . Bibcode:2018ApJ...868...44F. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/aadd04 . ISSN   1538-4357. S2CID   56047800.
  6. ↑ Gonzales, Eileen C.; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Gagné, Jonathan; Teske, Johanna; McWilliam, Andrew; Cruz, Kelle (2019-11-29). "A Reanalysis of the Fundamental Parameters and Age of TRAPPIST-1". The Astrophysical Journal. 886 (2): 131. arXiv: 1909.13859 . Bibcode:2019ApJ...886..131G. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab48fc . ISSN   1538-4357. S2CID   203594024.
  7. ↑ Gonzales, Eileen C.; Burningham, Ben; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Cleary, Colleen; Visscher, Channon; Marley, Mark S.; Lupu, Roxana; Freedman, Richard (2020-12-10). "Retrieval of the d/sdL7+T7.5p Binary SDSS J1416+1348AB". The Astrophysical Journal. 905 (1): 46. arXiv: 2010.01224 . Bibcode:2020ApJ...905...46G. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/abbee2 . ISSN   1538-4357. S2CID   230602357.
  8. ↑ Zagorac, Luna (2020-10-14). "Brown Dwarf Weather Forecast: Cloudy or Clear Skies?". Astrobites. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  9. ↑ "Ph.D. Candidate Wins Planetary Astronomy Fellowship That Provides Up to $375,000 in Funding". March 26, 2020. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  10. ↑ "Cornell linked to three 51 Pegasi b astronomy postdocs". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  11. ↑ Hershberger, Scott (22 October 2020). "#BlackInPhysics week to build community, increase visibility". symmetry magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  12. ↑ "Eileen Gonzales, Ph.D. candidate". Heising-Simons Foundation. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  13. ↑ "Meet the organizers of #BlackInPhysics Week". Physics Today. 2020 (4): 1026b. 2020. Bibcode:2020PhT..2020R1026.. doi:10.1063/pt.6.4.20201026b. S2CID   243455670.
  14. ↑ "Eileen Gonzales CV". ecgonzales.github.io. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  15. ↑ "She's Into the Coolest Stars". www.gc.cuny.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-01-16. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  16. ↑ "International Astronomical Union | IAU". www.iau.org. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  17. ↑ "AIP Showcases #BlackinPhysics Week with Essays, Oral Histories, Social Media Outreach". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  18. ↑ Brown, Charles D.; Gonzales, Eileen (January 2021). "Excellence and power in the Black physics community". Nature Physics. 17 (1): 3–4. Bibcode:2021NatPh..17....3B. doi: 10.1038/s41567-020-01140-9 . ISSN   1745-2481. S2CID   230508779.
  19. ↑ "AIP Showcases #BlackinPhysics Week with Essays, Oral Histories, Social Media Outreach". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  20. ↑ "#BlackInPhysics Week essay series". Physics Today . 2020 (4): 1026a. 2020. Bibcode:2020PhT..2020Q1026.. doi:10.1063/pt.6.4.20201026a. S2CID   243124449. Archived from the original on 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  21. ↑ "#BlackInPhysics". Physics World. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  22. ↑ "The challenges facing Black physicists". Physics World. 2020-11-02. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
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