Planets, planets everywhere!

Wow, it’s been a longg time since I last posted.  I attribute this to my crazy semester (hard classes + applying for graduate schools = close to no free time).  I still have one final left, but I really wanted to post about the exciting planet news that came out today!

In case you haven’t heard, NASA has confirmed the discovery of the FIRST Earth-sized exoplanets (exoplanets are planets outside our solar system)!  There have been a lot of planet discoveries in the news lately.  A lot of this is due to NASA’s Kepler satellite, which looks for exoplanet candidates.  Kepler detects small dips in the brightness of stars, which can be due to objects passing in front of them.  If a dip occurs regularly and in even intervals, you  know there is an object orbiting that star.  One then needs to conduct follow up observations with another telescope to confirm that the object is a planet.

Today, two new confirmed exoplanets – Kepler 20e and Kepler 20f – were announced.  Kepler 20f has a radius 1.03 times that of Earth’s, and Kepler 20e is even smaller – it has a radius of .87 times that of Earth’s.  Although both planets are Earth-sized, they aren’t as hospitable as our home planet.  Kepler 20e and 20f are both close to their sun-like host star, meaning they are very hot.  Kepler 20e is more than 1400 degrees F, and Kepler 20f is about 800 degrees F.

NASA chart showing how the sizes of Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f compare to Earth and Venus. (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/kepler-20-planet-lineup.html)

Although these two planets aren’t exactly the Earth-twin we’ve been searching for, it seems that it’s only a matter of time before we find it!

To read more follow this link!

Mae Jemison

Mae Jemison is an incredible woman and scientist, and is the first African American woman to travel in space.

Mae Jemison was born in 1956 and moved to Chicago early in her childhood.  As a child, she would spend many hours in the library reading about science.  When she was in high school, she decided to pursue a career in biomedical engineering.  After graduating from high school, she attended Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship.  Mae graduated from Stanford in 1977 with 2 bachelors degrees – one in chemical engineering and one in African and African-American Studies.  She then went to the Cornell University Medical College, receiving her doctor of medicine degree in 1981.  While she was at Cornell, she traveled to Cuba, Kenya, and to a refugee camp in Thailand to provide people with medical care.  Dr. Jemison became a Peace Corps Medical Officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia, where she also did medical research and taught.  After returning to the U.S., she took a job as a general practitioner.  She also enrolled in graduate courses in engineering and applied to NASA’s astronaut program.  Her first application was turned down, but she did not give up and was one of 15 people accepted from an applicant pool of over 2,000.

After completing astronaut training, Jemison became a science mission specialist.  In 1992, on the 8-day mission STS-47 Spacelab-J, Jemison conducted experiments on motion sickness and weightlessness, as well as an experiment to see how tadpoles would develop in space (they developed fine!).

After leaving NASA, Jemison accepted a teaching fellowship at Dartmouth College and founded The Jemison Group, which is a company that designs and consults on technology.  At Dartmouth, she started the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries.  She also started “The Earth We Share” which is an international science camp where students do experiments and learn critical thinking.

In an interview, when asked what tips she could give to young girls about achieving their dreams, Jemison answered:

“First of all, understand that sometimes other people won’t have the same vision of you that you have of yourself. Don’t accept other people’s limitations as being reality. Also, understand that you have as much right as anyone else to be in this world, and to be in any profession you want. That’s the most important thing — you don’t have to wait for permission.”

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4