John Johnson (astronomer) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Johnson
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Johnson at the 2012 Cool Stars Meeting in Barcelona
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| Born |
John Asher Johnson
January 4, 1977 |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Missouri University of Science and Technology University of California at Berkeley |
| Known for | Exoplanet research |
| Awards | Sloan Fellowship (2012) Newton Lacy Pierce Prize (2012) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | California Institute of Technology Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Geoffrey Marcy |
John Asher Johnson (born January 4, 1977) is an American astrophysicist. He is a professor of astronomy at Harvard University. Johnson made history as the first African-American professor to get a permanent position (called "tenure") in the physical sciences at Harvard. He is famous for finding some of the first planets smaller than Earth outside our solar system. This includes the first exoplanet that was about the size of Mars.
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Early Life and Education
John Johnson grew up in St. Louis, a city in Missouri. He went to the University of Missouri at Rolla, which is now called the Missouri University of Science and Technology. In 1999, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physics there.
Before starting graduate school, Johnson worked as a research scientist. He was part of the LIGO project at Caltech. LIGO is a huge experiment that looks for ripples in space-time called gravitational waves.
Later, he went to UC Berkeley for graduate school. He had never taken an astronomy class before! In 2007, he finished his Ph.D. in astrophysics. His main teacher was Geoff Marcy. Johnson's Ph.D. paper was about finding planets in new star systems. He even found some unusual "hot Jupiters," which are giant planets orbiting very close to their stars.
Scientific Career and Discoveries
Today, Johnson is a professor of astronomy at Harvard University. He is one of several professors who study exoplanets there. When he became a professor at Harvard in 2013, it was a big moment. He was the first African-American professor to get tenure in any of the physical sciences at the university.
Before Harvard, Johnson was a professor at the California Institute of Technology. He also worked as a researcher for NASA's Exoplanet Science Research Institute. He was also a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Astronomy (Hawaii) at the University of Hawaiʻi.
Searching for Exoplanets
Johnson's main work is finding and studying exoplanets. These are planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. He uses many different ways to find these distant worlds.
He helped start the Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA). This is a group of robotic telescopes on the ground. They look for exoplanets mainly by watching how a star "wobbles" because of a planet's gravity. This is called the radial velocity method. They also look for planets passing in front of their stars, which is called the transit method.
Johnson also works on measuring stars that host planets found by the Kepler mission. Knowing a star's exact size helps scientists figure out the true size of its planets. He is also involved with K2, which is the next part of the Kepler mission.
Discovering Small Planets
In 2012, Johnson and his team found three small, rocky exoplanets. They used the Kepler space telescope to observe a red dwarf star system. This star system was later named Kepler-42. The planet farthest from the star was almost as small as Mars. At that time, it was the smallest exoplanet ever found!
Later, another study used the Keck Observatory to learn more about this system. They compared the host star to Barnard's Star. This helped them measure the sizes of the three planets even more accurately.
Promoting Diversity in Science
John Johnson cares a lot about helping more students from diverse backgrounds get into astronomy. He started the Banneker Institute. This is a summer program at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.
The program gives money and support to college students. It focuses on students of color and those from groups not often seen in astronomy. The Banneker Institute has now joined with a similar program. It is now called the Banneker & Aztlán Institute. This new program also helps Latin and Native American students.
Besides doing research, the institute talks about important social justice issues. They discuss how these issues are important in the field of astronomy.
See also
In Spanish: John Johnson (astrónomo) para niños
