Michelle Thaller facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Dr
Michelle Thaller
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Thaller in 2013
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| Born |
Waukesha, Wisconsin, U.S.
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| Education | BS 1992, PhD 1998 |
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| Spouse(s) | Andrew Booth (2000–2020) |
Michelle Thaller is an American astronomer and research scientist. She is known for making science easy to understand for everyone. Dr. Thaller used to be the Assistant Director for Science Communication at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She worked at NASA for 27 years before retiring in 2024.
Before joining NASA, from 1998 to 2009, she worked at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). There, she was a staff scientist and later managed the education program for the Spitzer Space Telescope. You might also recognize her from TV shows on The History Channel and Science Channel.
Michelle Thaller's Early Life and Education
Michelle Thaller grew up in Wisconsin. She finished high school at Waukesha South High School in 1988. After high school, she went to Harvard University. She studied astrophysics there, which is the study of stars, planets, and galaxies. She also worked on measuring binary stars very precisely. She earned her bachelor's degree in 1992.
Later, she attended Georgia State University. Her research focused on how winds from massive stars crash into each other in binary systems. She earned her PhD in 1998.
Sharing Science with the World
Dr. Thaller loves to share her knowledge about space and science. She often writes a monthly science column for the Christian Science Monitor online. She also appears on many popular TV shows.
You can see her on The Universe on the History Channel. She is also a regular on the Science Channel series like How the Universe Works, Strip the Cosmos, and The Planets and Beyond. From 2016 to 2017, she wrote and hosted the "Orbital Path Podcasts" series. In 2008, she helped create the award-winning video podcast series IRrelevant Astronomy for the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope.
Personal Life
Michelle Thaller married fellow astronomer Andrew Booth on September 8, 2000, in Scotland. Andrew was a professor at the University of Sydney. He moved from Australia to be with Michelle in California. Andrew passed away in 2020.
