Professor Sara Seager and the Search for Exoplanets

Astronomy is changing, and quickly. What used to be a quest to see farther is transforming into a race to see smaller and in more detail. If the 20th century was defined by the realization that the Universe consists of hundreds of billions of galaxies, being swept away from each other by the Hubble Flow, then the 21st century will surely be defined by an accumulation of details slowly turning our faceless "stars" and "binaries" of today into teeming systems of comets, gas giants, earth like planets, moons, asteroids, and even.....gulp...life.

Exoplanets in the News

Just in case you don't know, an Exoplanet is a planet outside of our solar system. Recently it was reported that a rocky and water-rich planet, not much larger then our own, was discovered in a star system 40 light years away. The planet is intriguing because there is speculation that there may be liquid water on the planet due to the pressure of it's thick atmosphere. As with all scientific stories, the media sought out an expert in the field of exoplanets for a quote on the discovery. Professor Sara Seager explained "It really depends on how hot the planet is on the inside, and we don't know that. I think this planet doesn't have liquid water because it is too hot on the inside. I think it goes from water ice, to a very exotic kind of water — a superfluid — and then it goes to vapor."

It was a good idea to ask Professor Sara Seager, if anyone should be asked about exoplanets, it's her.

Professor Sara Seager

Professor Sara Seager is the Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor of Planetary Science and Associate Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For the past decade Professor Seager has been investigating exoplanets. Profressor Seager, orginally from Canada, became a permanent resident of the US in 2002. Professor Seager received her Ph.D. from Harvard University, her thesis was entitled "Extrasolar Planets Under Strong Stellar Irradiation".

Professor Seager has been involved with NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission and the New Worlds Imager. She is also a Deputy Mission Scientist for TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). An upcoming book entitled "Exoplanet Atmospheres: Physical Processes" is coming out in 2010. Professor Seager has over 50 publications on Exoplanets the past 10 years. Basically, if you're writing a scientific article on Exoplanets, Professor Seager is a good person to call for an expert's take.

Professor Seager has an excellent website found here. I strongly recommend that if you have an interest in exoplanets that you go visit it. Here is the introduction to the research section of her website:

"Over 350 planets are known to orbit nearby, sun-like stars. These planets are called "exoplanets". Professor Seager's favorite exoplanet diagram is the mass-period diagram shown to the left. This diagram (updated monthly) shows that exoplanets have all masses and semi-major axes possible, showcasing the random nature of planet formation and migration. The different planet detection techniques are shown in the diagram. Parts of the diagram with no planets are where technology can not yet reach exoplanets."

Exoplanets, Spectroscopy, and Paradigm Shifts

For a while there, the term Paradigm shift was hijacked by talking heads to exaggerate the significance of a new cup holder or paint color. It seems like that trend has died off, so I can use it for what it was intended. A paradigm shift is essentially a scientific revolution, like relativity, or quantum mechanics. Something which causes a seismic shift in our understanding of the universe. Today the stage is being set for the discovery on life on planets outside our solar system through spectroscopy and I don't think there is any doubt that such a discovery / paradigm shift will have giant ramifications.

Recently an important step towards such a discovery has been made with the first direct measurement of the atmospheric spectrum of a planet outside our solar system. Using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, scientists studied a planet about 130 light-years from Earth about 10 times more massive than Jupiter

In the future, when life is discovered in another star system, there can be little doubt that Professor Seager will have played a significant role in the development of the methods that made it possible.

The purpose of the WOW blog is to acknowledge the contributions of Women Engineers and Scientists, so naturally Professor Seager was an obvious choice. Still, this blog entry goes a little beyond simply relating to you how accomplished she is, I think the work she is doing is very important, and she is very good at it. If you have an interest in science, especially science that can potentially change how everyone thinks about the universe, then I think Professor Sara Seager's website should be added to your bookmarks.