Jessie Christiansen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jessie Christiansen
|
|
|---|---|
Christiansen at Palomar Observatory in 2018
|
|
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Exoplanets |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions |
|
| Thesis | A tale of two surveys: searching for extrasolar planets from Australia and Antarctica (2007) |
| Doctoral advisor | Michael Ashley |
Jessie Christiansen is an Australian astrophysicist. That's a scientist who studies space and planets! She is the Chief Scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute in California. This institute is part of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). In 2018, she won a special award called the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal. She earned it for her amazing work finding planets with the Kepler telescope.
Contents
Her Journey to Becoming a Scientist
Jessie Christiansen studied a lot to become an astrophysicist.
- In 2002, she finished her first science degree in physics and math at Griffith University in Australia.
- She then studied astronomy at the Australian National University.
- In 2007, she earned her PhD from the University of New South Wales. A PhD is a very high university degree.
- For her PhD, she used a special telescope called the Automated Patrol Telescope to observe space. This telescope is at Siding Spring Observatory.
Discovering Planets in Space
After getting her PhD, Jessie Christiansen worked as a researcher at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
- She works on the NASA Kepler Mission. This mission uses a space telescope to find exoplanets. Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system.
- She helps to list and organize all the exoplanets found by Kepler.
- In 2010, she and the Kepler Science Team won the NASA Group Achievement Award.
- She also helped plan the NASA TESS mission. The TESS mission looks for planets closest to Earth across the entire sky.
How Citizen Science Helps
Jessie Christiansen uses something called Citizen Science to find exoplanets.
- Citizen Science means that everyday people can help with scientific research.
- She uses a platform called Zooniverse. People can log on and help look through data from the Kepler Space Telescope.
- They help decide if a signal is a new planet or just noise.
- In January 2018, she announced a big discovery. She and Professor Ian Crossfield found five huge exoplanets.
- These planets orbit a star called K2-138. They form the longest chain of synchronized exoplanets ever found. This means they orbit their star in a nearly perfect rhythm.
- Jessie Christiansen has said that crowdsourcing research is important. It lets people anywhere learn about exoplanets and help scientists.
Sharing Her Discoveries
Jessie Christiansen often gives talks about her research.
- She speaks at big science conferences.
- She also gives public talks to share her discoveries with everyone.
- She has returned to her old university, ANU, to talk about her work.
- In July 2018, she received the NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal. This was for her important work on the Kepler planet data.
Sharing Science with Everyone
Jessie Christiansen loves to share her knowledge about space.
- She has appeared on the Discovery Science TV show NASA's Unexplained Files.
- She also took part in a discussion at Caltech about the science in the TV show The Expanse.
- In 2018, she was featured in a documentary called Under The Same Stars. This film is about women astrophysicists in America.
- She also talks about exoplanets and the Kepler mission on popular science podcasts.
- Her articles have been published on popular science websites. These include the New Scientist, Smithsonian Magazine, and BBC News.
See also
In Spanish: Jessie Christiansen para niños
