Elisa Quintana

Last updated
Elisa Victoria Quintana
ElisaQuintana2014.jpg
Quintana backed by an artist's impression of Kepler 186f
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Alma mater University of Michigan, Grossmont College, University of California at San Diego
Known for Astronomy
Scientific career
Fields Astronomy
InstitutionsAstrophysicist NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Doctoral advisor Fred Adams

Elisa Victoria Quintana is a scientist working in the field of astronomy and planetary science at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research focuses the detection and characterization of exoplanets in addition to studying how they form. She is best known for the detection of Kepler 186f, [1] the first Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone of a star other than the Sun. [2] [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Quintana was born in Silver City, New Mexico. [4] Her father Leroy Quintana, is a Chicano poet and her grandfather was a miner who appeared in blacklisted movie Salt of the Earth. Aged 9 she moved to San Diego. She attended Grossmont College and transferred to the University of California at San Diego where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. During her time as an undergraduate Quintana worked on astrodynamics the KidSat program (later renamed EarthKAM) with first US woman astronaut Sally Ride who was a professor in San Diego.

She received Master's degrees in both Aerospace Science and Physics from the University of Michigan and earned her PhD in Physics from the University of Michigan in 2004. Her PhD thesis for on the topic of planet formation in binary star systems. Quintana was amongst the first people to study whether planets could form in the Alpha Centauri system. [5]

Academic career

Quintana was a member of the NASA Kepler Mission Team at NASA Ames Research Center from 2006 to 2017. She worked as a scientific programmer developing the Kepler pipeline, for which she was awarded the NASA Software of the Year in 2010. [6] She was part of the team that discovered the first rocky exoplanet Kepler-10b, the first exoplanet to orbit the habitable zone of another star Kepler-22b, and the first Earth-sized exoplanet Kepler-20e. In 2014, she led the team that discovered Kepler-186f, an earth-sized exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone a red dwarf star, [7] which was published in the journal Science. [8]

Quintana has been studying the frequency of giant impacts on exoplanets and comparing how their frequency compares with Earth. [9] [10] In 2017, she moved to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where she serves as Deputy Project Scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly known as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope) and Deputy Project Scientist for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

Quintana is one of the few female Hispanic scientists in astronomy. [11]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

Elisa Quintana has published numerous publications on topics in astronomy, specifically the Kepler mission.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-22b</span> Super-Earth exoplanet orbiting Kepler-22

Kepler-22b is an exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the Sun-like star Kepler-22. It is located about 640 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. It was discovered by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope in December 2011 and was the first known transiting planet to orbit within the habitable zone of a Sun-like star, where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. Kepler-22 is too dim to be seen with the naked eye.

Kepler-47 is a binary star system in the constellation Cygnus located about 3,420 light-years away from Earth. The stars have three exoplanets, all of which orbit both stars at the same time, making this a circumbinary system. The first two planets announced are designated Kepler-47b, and Kepler-47c, and the third, later discovery is Kepler-47d. Kepler-47 is the first circumbinary multi-planet system discovered by the Kepler mission. The outermost of the planets is a gas giant orbiting within the habitable zone of the stars. Because most stars are binary, the discovery that multi-planet systems can form in such a system has impacted previous theories of planetary formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-62f</span> Super-Earth orbiting Kepler-62

Kepler-62f is a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the star Kepler-62, the outermost of five such planets discovered around the star by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is located about 980 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Lyra.

Kepler-23 is a star in the northern constellation of Cygnus, the swan. It is orbited by three known exoplanets. With an apparent visual magnitude of 14.0, this star is too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-26</span> Star in the constellation Lyra

Kepler-26 is a star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It is located at the celestial coordinates: Right Ascension 18h 59m 45.8407s Declination +46° 33′ 59.438″. With an apparent visual magnitude of 15.5, this star is too faint to be seen with the naked eye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-138</span> Red dwarf in the constellation Lyra

Kepler-138, also known as KOI-314, is a red dwarf located in the constellation Lyra, 219 light years from Earth. It is located within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission used to detect planets transiting their stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-186</span> Star in the constellation Cygnus

Kepler-186 is a main-sequence M1-type dwarf star, located 178.5 parsecs away in the constellation of Cygnus. The star is slightly cooler than the sun, with roughly half its metallicity. It is known to have five planets, including the first Earth-sized world discovered in the habitable zone: Kepler-186f. The star hosts four other planets discovered so far, though they all orbit interior to the habitable zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-186f</span> Terrestrial exoplanet orbiting Kepler-186

Kepler-186f is an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Kepler-186, the outermost of five such planets discovered around the star by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is located about 580 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-438b</span> Super-Earth orbiting Kepler-438

Kepler-438b is a confirmed near-Earth-sized exoplanet. It is likely rocky. It orbits on the inner edge of the habitable zone of a red dwarf, Kepler-438, about 472.9 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. It receives 1.4 times our solar flux. The planet was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. NASA announced the confirmation of the exoplanet on 6 January 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-442b</span> Super-Earth orbiting Kepler-442

Kepler-442b is a confirmed near-Earth-sized exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the habitable zone of the K-type main-sequence star Kepler-442, about 1,206 light-years (370 pc) from Earth in the constellation of Lyra.

Kepler-440b is a confirmed super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of Kepler-440, about 850 light-years (261 pc) from Earth. The planet was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. NASA announced the confirmation of the exoplanet on 6 January 2015.

Kepler-296e is a confirmed super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of Kepler-296. The planet was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. NASA announced the discovery of the exoplanet on 26 February 2014.

Kepler-296f is a confirmed super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of Kepler-296. The planet was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. NASA announced the discovery of the exoplanet on 26 February 2014.

Kepler-296 is a binary star system in the constellation Draco. The primary star appears to be a late K-type main-sequence star, while the secondary is a red dwarf.

Kepler-186e is a confirmed exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf star Kepler-186, approximately 582 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. It is near the optimistic habitable zone but probably not in it, possibly making it have a runaway greenhouse effect, like Venus. The exoplanet was found by using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. Four additional planets orbiting the star were also discovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-443b</span> Extrasolar planet

Kepler-443b is an exoplanet about 2,540 light-years from Earth. It has an 89.9 percent chance of being in the star's habitable zone, yet only a 4.9 percent chance of being rocky.

TOI-700 is a red dwarf 101.4 light-years away from Earth located in the Dorado constellation that hosts TOI-700 d, the first Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TOI-700 d</span> Goldilocks terrestrial planet orbiting TOI-700

TOI-700 d is a near-Earth-sized exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf TOI-700, the outermost planet within the system. It is located roughly 101.4 light-years (31.1 pc) away from Earth in the constellation of Dorado. The exoplanet is the first Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone discovered by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

Kepler-160 is a main-sequence star approximately the width of our Galactic arm away in the constellation Lyra, first studied in detail by the Kepler Mission, a NASA-led operation tasked with discovering terrestrial planets. The star, which is very similar to the Sun in mass and radius, has three confirmed planets and one unconfirmed planet orbiting it.

References

  1. ↑ Chang, Kenneth (17 April 2014). "Scientists Find an 'Earth Twin', or Maybe a Cousin". The New York Times .
  2. ↑ Chang, Alicia (17 April 2014). "Astronomers spot most Earth-like planet yet". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2014-04-18.
  3. ↑ Morelle, Rebecca (17 April 2014). "'Most Earth-like planet yet' spotted by Kepler". BBC News . Archived from the original on 2014-04-18.
  4. ↑ Lartaud, Derek (7 January 2016). "Career Spotlight: The Planet-Searching Physicist". KQED .
  5. ↑ Quintana, E. V.; Lissauer, J. J.; Chambers, J. E.; Duncan, M. J. (2002). "Terrestrial Planet Formation in the Alpha Centauri System". Astrophysical Journal . 2, part 1 (2): 982–996. Bibcode:2002ApJ...576..982Q. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.528.4268 . doi:10.1086/341808. S2CID   53469170.
  6. ↑ "NASA's Kepler Mission Wins 2010 Software Of The Year Award". NASA.
  7. ↑ "Kepler-186f, the First Earth-size Planet in the Habitable Zone". NASA. 3 March 2015.
  8. ↑ Quintana, E. V.; Barclay, T.; Raymond, S. N.; Rowe, J. F.; Bolmont, E.; Caldwell, D. A.; Howell, S. B.; Kane, S. R.; Huber, D.; Crepp, J. R.; Lissauer, J. J.; Ciardi, D. R.; Coughlin, J. L.; Everett, M. E.; Henze, C. E.; Horch, E.; Isaacson, H.; Ford, E. B.; Adams, F. C.; Still, M.; Hunter, R. C.; Quarles, B.; Selsis, F. (2014-04-18). "An Earth-Sized Planet in the Habitable Zone of a Cool Star". Science . 344 (6181): 277–280. arXiv: 1404.5667 . Bibcode:2014Sci...344..277Q. doi:10.1126/science.1249403. PMID   24744370. S2CID   1892595.
  9. ↑ Quintana, E. V.; Barclay, T.; Borucki, W. J.; Rowe, J. F.; Chambers, J. E. (2016). "The Frequency of Giant impacts on Earth-like Worlds". Astrophysical Journal . 821 (2): 126. arXiv: 1511.03663 . Bibcode:2016ApJ...821..126Q. doi: 10.3847/0004-637X/821/2/126 . S2CID   96446047.
  10. ↑ Kohler, Susanna (9 May 2016). "Giant Impacts on Earth-Like Worlds". American Astronomical Society .
  11. ↑ "Research Scientist Highlight: Dr. Elisa Quintana". Astronomy in Color. 8 March 2016.
  12. ↑ "Dr. Elisa Quintana receives the Lupe Ontiveros Dream Award". Space Science and Astrobiology at Ames. NASA Ames Research Center. Archived from the original on 2014-11-23.
  13. ↑ "2015 HENAAC Award Winners". Great Minds In STEM. Archived from the original on 2019-03-23. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  14. ↑ "2015 GMiS HENAAC Awards Part 12 – Charles Bolden Message, Scientist of the Year Dr. Elisa Quintana" on YouTube
  15. ↑ "Awards - Observational Cosmology Laboratory". science.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  16. ↑ "Awards - Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory". science.gsfc.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
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