Jessie Christiansen

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Jessie Christiansen
Jessie Christiansen at Palomar Observatory.jpg
Christiansen at Palomar Observatory in 2018
Alma mater
Griffith University (BS)

Australian National University (BS (Hons)) University of New South Wales (PhD)

Contents

Known forExoplanets
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis A tale of two surveys: searching for extrasolar planets from Australia and Antarctica  (2007)
Doctoral advisor Michael Ashley
Website web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/christia/

Jessie Christiansen is an Australian astrophysicist who is the Chief Scientist of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). She won the 2018 NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal for her work on the Kepler planet sample.

Education

In 2002 Jessie Christiansen completed a Bachelor of Science (Advanced Studies) in physics and mathematics at Griffith University, Brisbane. She then continued her studies to receive a BSc first class honours in Astronomy at the Australian National University, Canberra. [1] She completed a PhD at the University of New South Wales in 2007, under the supervision of Michael Ashley. [2] [3] Her PhD required observations at the Automated Patrol Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. [4]

Career

After Christiansen's PhD, she worked as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. [5] Christiansen works on the NASA Kepler mission, cataloguing the exoplanets within the Kepler field. [6] As a member of the Kepler Science Team, she won the NASA Group Achievement Award in 2010. She was involved in the planning of the NASA TESS mission, which searches the whole sky for the nearest planets to Earth. [5]

Christiansen uses Citizen Science and the Zooniverse to help in her quest for exoplanets using the Kepler Space Telescope K2 dataset. [7] [8] She worked with Professor Ian Crossfield at MIT to ensure that the K2 data was made public, and in January 2018 announced the discovery of 5 massive exoplanets orbiting the sun-like star K2-138. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] The exoplanets make up the longest chain of synchronised exoplanets ever discovered, orbiting in near-perfect resonance to their star. [14] [15] In an interview with the BBC, Christiansen spoke about the importance of crowdsourcing research projects "people anywhere can log on and learn what real signals from exoplanets look like, and then look through actual data collected from the Kepler telescope to vote on whether or not to classify a given signal as a transit, or just noise". [16]

Alongside being the plenary speaker at academic conferences, Christiansen gives public talks about her research. [17] [18] She has returned to her alma mater, ANU, to discuss her research "Characterising the Kepler Survey Completeness". [19] In July 2018 Christiansen won the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal for her work on the Kepler planet sample. [20]

Public engagement

Christiansen appeared on the Discovery Science program NASA's Unexplained Files. [21] She recorded a panel discussion at Caltech, talking about the science behind Syfy's The Expanse. [22] In 2018 she will appear in Ali Alvarez's documentary Under The Same Stars, about American women astrophysicists. She also discusses exoplanets and the Kepler mission on popular science podcasts. [23] [24]

Her writing has appeared on popular science websites, including the New Scientist, [25] Smithsonian Magazine, [26] and BBC News. [27] In 2015 Christiansen joined 278 other scientists in a letter to the New York Times to object to their article that minimized the trauma of people who accused Professor Geoff Marcy of sexual advances. [28] [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler space telescope</span> NASA space telescope for exoplanetology (2009–2018)

The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit. The principal investigator was William J. Borucki. After nine and a half years of operation, the telescope's reaction control system fuel was depleted, and NASA announced its retirement on October 30, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite</span> NASA satellite of the Explorer program

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission. It was launched on 18 April 2018, atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle and was placed into a highly elliptical 13.70-day orbit around the Earth. The first light image from TESS was taken on 7 August 2018, and released publicly on 17 September 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discoveries of exoplanets</span> Detecting planets located outside the Solar System

An exoplanet is a planet located outside the Solar System. The first evidence of an exoplanet was noted as early as 1917, but was not recognized as such until 2016; no planet discovery has yet come from that evidence. What turned out to be the first detection of an exoplanet was published among a list of possible candidates in 1988, though not confirmed until 2003. The first confirmed detection came in 1992, with the discovery of terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. The first confirmation of an exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star was made in 1995, when a giant planet was found in a four-day orbit around the nearby star 51 Pegasi. Some exoplanets have been imaged directly by telescopes, but the vast majority have been detected through indirect methods, such as the transit method and the radial-velocity method. As of 24 July 2024, there are 7,026 confirmed exoplanets in 4,949 planetary systems, with 1007 systems having more than one planet. This is a list of the most notable discoveries.

A Kepler object of interest (KOI) is a star observed by the Kepler space telescope that is suspected of hosting one or more transiting planets. KOIs come from a master list of 150,000 stars, which itself is generated from the Kepler Input Catalog (KIC). A KOI shows a periodic dimming, indicative of an unseen planet passing between the star and Earth, eclipsing part of the star. However, such an observed dimming is not a guarantee of a transiting planet, because other astronomical objects—such as an eclipsing binary in the background—can mimic a transit signal. For this reason, the majority of KOIs are as yet not confirmed transiting planet systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA Exoplanet Archive</span> Online astronomical exoplanet catalog and data service

The NASA Exoplanet Archive is an online astronomical exoplanet catalog and data service that collects and serves public data that support the search for and characterization of extra-solar planets (exoplanets) and their host stars. It is part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center and is on the campus of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA. The archive is funded by NASA and was launched in early December 2011 by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute as part of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program. In June 2019, the archive's collection of confirmed exoplanets surpassed 4,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Planet Hunters</span> Citizen science project to find exoplanets

Planet Hunters is a citizen science project to find exoplanets using human eyes. It does this by having users analyze data from the NASA Kepler space telescope and the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. It was launched by a team led by Debra Fischer at Yale University, as part of the Zooniverse project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Johnson (astronomer)</span> American astrophysicist and professor of astronomy

John Asher Johnson is an American astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at Harvard. He is the first tenured African-American physical science professor in the history of the university. Johnson is well known for discovering three of the first known planets smaller than the Earth outside of the solar system, including the first Mars-sized exoplanet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler-37</span> G-type main-sequence star in the constellation Lyra

Kepler-37, also known as UGA-1785, is a G-type main-sequence star located in the constellation Lyra 209 light-years from Earth. It is host to exoplanets Kepler-37b, Kepler-37c, Kepler-37d and possibly Kepler-37e, all of which orbit very close to it. Kepler-37 has a mass about 80.3 percent of the Sun's and a radius about 77 percent as large. It has a temperature similar to that of the Sun, but a bit cooler at 5,357 K. It has about half the metallicity of the Sun. With an age of roughly 6 billion years, it is slightly older than the Sun, but is still a main-sequence star. Until January 2015, Kepler-37 was the smallest star to be measured via asteroseismology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Batalha</span> American astrophysicist

Natalie M. Batalha is professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. Previously she was a research astronomer in the Space Sciences Division of NASA Ames Research Center and held the position of Science Team Lead, Mission Scientist, and Project Scientist on the Kepler Mission, the first mission capable of finding Earth-size planets around other stars. Before moving to NASA, Batalha was a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at San Jose State University.

Aomawa L. Shields is an associate professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine. Her research is focused on exploring the climate and habitability of small exoplanets, using data from observatories including NASA's Kepler space telescope. Shields was a 2015 TED Fellow, and is active in science communication and outreach. She develops interactive workshops to encourage self-esteem and teach about astronomy, combines her training in theater and her career in astronomy.

K2-72 is a cool red dwarf star of spectral class M2.7V located about 217 light-years away from the Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. It is known to host four planets, all similar in size to Earth, with one of them residing within the habitable zone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K2-72e</span> Goldilocks terrestrial exoplanet orbiting K2-72

K2-72e (also known by its EPIC designation EPIC 206209135.04), is a confirmed exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star K2-72, the outermost of four such planets discovered in the system by NASA's Kepler spacecraft on its "Second Light" mission. It is located about 217.1 light-years (66.56 parsecs, or nearly 2.0538×1015 km) away from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. 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.

K2-138b is a potentially rocky Super-Earth exoplanet orbiting every 2 days around a K1V star. The planet, along with the four others in the system, was found by citizen scientists of the Exoplanet Explorers project on Zooniverse. It was the final planet found in the system and was officially announced on January 8, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K2-138</span> Star in the constellation Aquarius

K2-138, also designated EPIC 245950175 or EE-1, is a large early K-type main sequence star with a system of at least 6 planets discovered by citizen scientists. Four were found in the first two days of the Exoplanet Explorers project on Zooniverse in early April 2017, while two more were revealed in further analysis. The system is about 660 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, within K2 Campaign 12.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K2-288Bb</span> Mini-Neptune orbiting K2-288B

K2-288Bb is a super-Earth or mini-Neptune exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of K2-288B, a low-mass M-dwarf star in a binary star system in the constellation of Taurus about 226 light-years from Earth. It was discovered by citizen scientists while analysing data from the Kepler space telescope's K2 mission, and was announced on 7 January 2019. K2-288 is the third transiting planet system identified by the Exoplanet Explorers program, after the six planets of K2-138 and the three planets of K2-233.

K2-315b is an exoplanet located 185.3 light years away from Earth in the southern zodiac constellation Libra. It orbits the red dwarf K2-315.

K2-66b is a confirmed mega-Earth orbiting the subgiant K2-66, about 520 parsecs (1,700 ly) from Earth in the direction of Aquarius. It is an extremely hot and dense planet heavier than Neptune, but with only about half its radius.

References

  1. ↑ "Introducing Jessie Christiansen". astrotweeps. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  2. ↑ "Michael Ashley". newt.phys.unsw.edu.au. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  3. ↑ A tale of two surveys: searching for extrasolar planets from Australia and Antarctica (PhD thesis). University of New South Wales. 2007.
  4. ↑ Hidas, Marton; Webb, John; Ashley, Michael; Phillips, Andre; Christiansen, Jesse; Hamacher, Duane Willis; Curran, Stephen; Irwin, M.; Agrain, S. (2007). "The University of New South Wales Extrasolar Planet Search". Transiting Extrapolar Planets Workshop: 45–50.
  5. 1 2 "Our Home, the Milky Way Galaxy". Universe of Learning. Archived from the original on 27 December 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  6. ↑ "SEMINAR: Jessie Christiansen [IPAC Caltech]". www.cpp.edu. Retrieved 16 January 2018.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. ↑ "Zooniverse". www.zooniverse.org. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  8. ↑ "New Features | Zooniverse". blog.zooniverse.org. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  9. ↑ "Five-Planet System Found: K2-138 | Astronomy | Sci-News.com". Breaking Science News | Sci-News.com. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  10. ↑ Greicius, Tony (11 January 2018). "Multi-planet System Found Through Crowdsourcing". NASA. Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  11. ↑ "Multi-planet System Found Through Crowdsourcing". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  12. ↑ Dvorsky, George. "Star System With Five Rocky Planets Discovered by Amateur Astronomers". Gizmodo. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  13. ↑ "Citizen Scientists Discover Five-Planet System | Caltech". The California Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  14. ↑ "Music of the spheres: chain of planets rotates at "perfect | Cosmos". cosmosmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  15. ↑ Christiansen, Jessie L.; Crossfield, Ian J. M.; Barentsen, Geert; Lintott, Chris J.; Barclay, Thomas; Simmons, Brooke D.; Petigura, Erik; Schlieder, Joshua E.; Dressing, Courtney D. (11 January 2018). "The K2-138 System: A Near-Resonant Chain of Five Sub-Neptune Planets Discovered by Citizen Scientists". The Astronomical Journal. 155 (2): 57. arXiv: 1801.03874 . Bibcode:2018AJ....155...57C. doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa9be0 . S2CID   52971376.
  16. ↑ Rincon, Paul (2018). "Citizen science bags five-planet haul". BBC News. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  17. ↑ "Exoplanets I Pre-registered Participants | Exoplanets I Conference". www.exoplanetscience.org. Archived from the original on 17 January 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  18. ↑ "Jessie Christiansen". web.ipac.caltech.edu. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  19. ↑ Director, RSAA; webmaster@mso.anu.edu.au (13 August 2013). "Colloquia Recordings". Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  20. ↑ Mohon, Lee (5 July 2017). "2017 Agency Honor Awards". NASA. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  21. ↑ "Is There Life On Kepler-186f? - NASA's Unexplained Files | Science". www.sciencechannel.com. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  22. ↑ caltech (3 February 2017), The Science Behind "The Expanse" - 1/25/17 , retrieved 16 January 2018
  23. ↑ Jessie Christiansen and the hedonic treadmill of planets. , retrieved 16 January 2018
  24. ↑ "Episode 42: Finding exoplanets with Dr. Christiansen". Spacepod. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  25. ↑ "Superfast spinning stars cause strangest weather in the universe". New Scientist. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  26. ↑ Redd, Nola Taylor. "How a Young Jupiter Acted as Both Protector and Destroyer". Smithsonian. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  27. ↑ Webb, Jonathan (2016). "Star clumps 'good bet for alien life'". BBC News. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  28. ↑ Overbye, Dennis (10 October 2015). "Geoffrey Marcy, Astronomer at Berkeley, Apologizes for Behavior". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  29. ↑ "Letter to NY Times". www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
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