Science Briefing: Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s
Location
Virtual
Contact Information
About Event
In this briefing, speakers will spotlight where the focus will lie for the U.S. astronomical community in the coming decades. Dr. Rachel Osten will present an overview of the decadal report, particularly of its recommendations for space-based astronomy. Dr. Christopher Stark will guide us through the future landscape of exoplanet science. Dr. Ann Hornschemeier Cardiff will present the findings of the report of the panel on galaxies. In addition to these perspectives, we will highlight several resources relating to this content.
About the Series
The NASA’s Universe of Learning Science Briefings are professional learning telecons for the informal science education community, done in partnership with the NASA’s Museum & Informal Education Alliance, now found on NASA CONNECTS. These monthly thematic briefings highlight current NASA astrophysics explorations and discoveries from across the suite of NASA astrophysics missions. NASA scientists and engineers provide contemporary science results, and are able to respond to listener questions during the telecon. NASA-developed education and outreach resources, matched to the monthly theme, are included in every briefing.
In order to participate in the telecon and ask questions of the scientists, please join NASA’s Museum & Informal Education Alliance.
Facilitator & Presenters
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Dr. Christopher Britt is an education and outreach scientist in the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). He got his PhD in astronomy at Louisiana State University in 2013, followed by postdoctoral positions at Texas Tech University and Michigan State University, where he used ground- and space-based observatories to study accretion onto the compact remnants of dead stars. Dr. Britt has been a member of the Office of Public Outreach since 2018 where he works with the Hubble, JWST, and WFIRST communications teams, as well as with the broader NASA science education community, via NASA’s Universe of Learning, to deliver accurate cutting-edge science content to learners of all ages.
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Dr. Rachel Osten is an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and a Research Scientist at the Center for Astrophysical Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University. From May 2019 until Nov. 2021, she was a member of the Steering Committee for the Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s report, as well as being the Executive Officer of the survey. Her scientific interests concentrate on studying the dynamic processes at work in the outer atmospheres of star, particularly characterizing what may produce space weather in other star systems. She utilizes a broad multi-wavelength observational approach. Dr. Osten is also the Head of the Instruments Division at STScI and oversees science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
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Dr. Christopher Stark is currently the Deputy Integration, Test, and Commissioning Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His research focuses on exoplanets, circumstellar debris disks, and the science yield of future exoplanet-imaging missions. Dr. Stark served as a member of the Astro2020 Panel on Exoplanets, Astrobiology, and the Solar System.
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Dr. Ann Hornschemeier Cardiff is the Chief of the X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, consisting of more than seventy scientists, engineers, and technicians. X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory personnel conduct research in observational astrophysics and on X-ray instruments and optics, operate a suite of existing X-ray missions, and perform mission design and instrument/optics development for future missions. Dr. Hornschemeier Cardiff specializes in studies of X-ray emission from accreting black hole and neutron star binary populations, both in the local universe and at cosmologically interesting distances (z > 0.1). This work is carried out using surveys by space-based X-ray, UV, and infrared observatories as well as ground-based telescopes, working in coordination with theorists. She leads work on observations of nearby galaxies with NuSTAR, Chandra, XMM-Newton and Swift with a team of approximately ten scientists both at NASA GSFC and universities.