David Charbonneau

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David Charbonneau
Charbonneau 180x240.jpg
Born
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
CitizenshipCanadian, U.S.A.
Alma mater University of Toronto,
Harvard University
Known forDetection and characterization of exoplanets
Scientific career
Institutions Harvard University
Thesis Shadows and Reflections of Extrasolar Planets  (2001)
Doctoral advisor Robert W. Noyes, Timothy M. Brown
Doctoral students Heather A. Knutson

David Brian Charbonneau is a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. His research focuses on the development of novel techniques for the detection and characterization of exoplanets orbiting nearby, Sun-like stars.

Contents

Early life and education

David Charbonneau was born in Ottawa, Ontario. [1] He is the son of Brian Charbonneau, a geologist, and Sylvia Charbonneau, a physician. [2] [3]

When he was around 12 years old, he visited Pacific Rim National Park with his family, where he spent time playing in tide pools and observing the variety of organisms that lived in the intertidal zone. He credits this experience with sparking an early interest in science. [4] When he was in high school, he read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Intrigued by the ideas in the book, he decided to pursue studies in physics and astronomy, rather than biology. [5] [4]

Charbonneau received a Bachelor of Science degree in math, physics, and astronomy from the University of Toronto in 1996. At the suggestion of his friend Sara Seager, he applied to the graduate program in astronomy at Harvard University and was accepted. [1] [4] As a graduate student in 1999, he used a 4-inch telescope to make the first detection of an exoplanet eclipsing (or transiting) its parent star, which yielded the first ever constraint on the composition of a planet outside the Solar system. He earned a PhD in astronomy in 2001. [6]

In 2004, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific awarded him the Robert J. Trumpler Award for his graduate thesis entitled Shadows and Reflections of Extrasolar Planets. [7]

Career

Charbonneau was a R. A. Millikan Postdoctoral Scholar in Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology from 2001 until 2004. He returned to Harvard in 2004 where he joined the faculty of the Department of Astronomy. [1] [6]

Charbonneau was a founding member of the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey, which used a worldwide network of humble automated telescopes to survey hundreds of thousands of stars to detect 5 more exoplanets by this technique. Charbonneau also pioneered the use of space-based observatories to undertake the first studies of the atmospheres of these distant worlds: In 2001 he used the Hubble Space Telescope to study directly the chemical make-up of the atmosphere enshrouding one of these exoplanets, and in 2005, he led the team that used the Spitzer Space Telescope to make the first direct detection of the light emitted by an exoplanet. He is currently leading the NSF-funded MEarth Project and is a member of the NASA Kepler Mission Team. Each of these projects aims to detect Earth-like planets that might be suitable abodes for life beyond the Solar system.[ citation needed ]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

Personal life

Charbonneau is married to Margaret Bourdeaux, a global health advocate and physician, [10] with whom he has four daughters. [11] His sister-in-law is Carolyn Bourdeaux. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exoplanet</span> Planet outside the Solar System

An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not then recognized as such. The first confirmation of the detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, first detected in 1988, was confirmed in 2003. As of 1 May 2024, there are 5,662 confirmed exoplanets in 4,169 planetary systems, with 896 systems having more than one planet. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is expected to discover more exoplanets, and to give more insight into their traits, such as their composition, environmental conditions, and potential for life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HD 209458 b</span> Gas giant exoplanet orbiting HD 209458

HD 209458 b is an exoplanet that orbits the solar analog HD 209458 in the constellation Pegasus, some 157 light-years from the Solar System. The radius of the planet's orbit is 0.047 AU, or one-eighth the radius of Mercury's orbit. This small radius results in a year that is 3.5 Earth-days long and an estimated surface temperature of about 1,000 °C. Its mass is 220 times that of Earth and its volume is some 2.5 times greater than that of Jupiter. The high mass and volume of HD 209458 b indicate that it is a gas giant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HD 209458</span> Star in the constellation Pegasus

HD 209458 is a star with an orbiting exoplanet in the constellation Pegasus. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 7.65 and an absolute magnitude of 4.28. Because it is located at a distance of 157 light-years from the Sun as measured via parallax, it is not visible to the unaided eye. With good binoculars or a small telescope it should be easily detectable. The system is drifting closer with a heliocentric radial velocity of −14.8 km/s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TrES-1b</span> Hot Jupiter orbiting TrES-1 in the constellation of Lyra

TrES-1b is an extrasolar planet approximately 523 light-years away in the constellation of Lyra. The planet's mass and radius indicate that it is a Jovian planet with a similar bulk composition to Jupiter. Unlike Jupiter, but similar to many other planets detected around other stars, TrES-1 is located very close to its star, and belongs to the class of planets known as hot Jupiters. The planet was discovered orbiting around GSC 02652-01324.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exomoon</span> Moon beyond the Solar System

An exomoon or extrasolar moon is a natural satellite that orbits an exoplanet or other non-stellar extrasolar body.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gliese 876 b</span> Extrasolar planet orbiting Gliese 876

Gliese 876 b is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 876. It completes one orbit in approximately 61 days. Discovered in June 1998, Gliese 876 b was the first planet to be discovered orbiting a red dwarf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upsilon Andromedae b</span> Extrasolar planet in the Andromeda constellation

Upsilon Andromedae b, formally named Saffar, is an extrasolar planet approximately 44 light-years away from the Sun in the constellation of Andromeda. The planet orbits its host star, the F-type main-sequence star Upsilon Andromedae A, approximately every five days. Discovered in June 1996 by Geoffrey Marcy and R. Paul Butler, it was one of the first hot Jupiters to be discovered. It is also one of the first non-resolved planets to be detected directly. Upsilon Andromedae b is the innermost-known planet in its planetary system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Methods of detecting exoplanets</span>

Any planet is an extremely faint light source compared to its parent star. For example, a star like the Sun is about a billion times as bright as the reflected light from any of the planets orbiting it. In addition to the intrinsic difficulty of detecting such a faint light source, the light from the parent star causes a glare that washes it out. For those reasons, very few of the exoplanets reported as of January 2024 have been observed directly, with even fewer being resolved from their host star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Seager</span> Canadian astronomer

Sara Seager is a Canadian–American astronomer and planetary scientist. She is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is known for her work on extrasolar planets and their atmospheres. She is the author of two textbooks on these topics, and has been recognized for her research by Popular Science, Discover Magazine, Nature, and TIME Magazine. Seager was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 citing her theoretical work on detecting chemical signatures on exoplanet atmospheres and developing low-cost space observatories to observe planetary transits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gliese 436 b</span> Hot Neptune exoplanet orbiting Gliese 436

Gliese 436 b is a Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 436. It was the first hot Neptune discovered with certainty and was among the smallest-known transiting planets in mass and radius, until the much smaller Kepler exoplanet discoveries began circa 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HD 189733 b</span> Hot Jupiter exoplanet in the constellation Vulpecula

HD 189733 b is an exoplanet in the constellation of Vulpecula approximately 64.5 light-years away from the Solar System. Astronomers in France discovered the planet orbiting the star HD 189733 on October 5, 2005, by observing its transit across the star's face. With a mass 11.2% higher than that of Jupiter and a radius 11.4% greater, HD 189733 b orbits its host star once every 2.2 days at an orbital speed of 152.0 kilometers per second, making it a hot Jupiter with poor prospects for extraterrestrial life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia</span> Astronomical database

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia is an astronomy website, founded in Paris, France at the Meudon Observatory by Jean Schneider in February 1995, which maintains a database of all the currently known and candidate extrasolar planets, with individual pages for each planet and a full list interactive catalog spreadsheet. The main catalogue comprises databases of all of the currently confirmed extrasolar planets as well as a database of unconfirmed planet detections. The databases are frequently updated with new data from peer-reviewed publications and conferences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GSC 03549-02811</span> Main sequence star in the constellation Draco

GSC 03549-02811 is a yellow main-sequence star similar to the Sun. This star is located approximately 704 light-years away in the constellation of Draco. The apparent magnitude of this star is 11.41, which means it is not visible to the naked eye but can be seen with a medium-sized amateur telescope on a clear dark night. The age of this star is about 5 billion years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discoveries of exoplanets</span> Detecting planets located outside the Solar System

An exoplanet is a planet located outside the Solar System. The first evidence of an exoplanet was noted as early as 1917, but was not recognized as such until 2016; no planet discovery has yet come from that evidence. What turned out to be the first detection of an exoplanet was published among a list of possible candidates in 1988, though not confirmed until 2003. The first confirmed detection came in 1992, with the discovery of terrestrial-mass planets orbiting the pulsar PSR B1257+12. The first confirmation of an exoplanet orbiting a main-sequence star was made in 1995, when a giant planet was found in a four-day orbit around the nearby star 51 Pegasi. Some exoplanets have been imaged directly by telescopes, but the vast majority have been detected through indirect methods, such as the transit method and the radial-velocity method. As of 1 May 2024, there are 5,662 confirmed exoplanets in 4,169 planetary systems, with 896 systems having more than one planet. This is a list of the most notable discoveries.

Adam Burrows is a noted professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University.

Eric Agol is an American astronomer and astrophysicist who was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "David Charbonneau". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Stork report – Selena Jordan Charbonneau". Wicked Local. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Scientist of the Year: David Charbonneau | DiscoverMagazine.com". Discover Magazine. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 Ellerbroek, Lucas (September 15, 2017). Planet Hunters: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life. Reaktion Books. ISBN   9781780238784.
  5. ↑ Phil, Mozel (2010). "A Moment With...Dr. David Charbonneau". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 104 (5): 210. Bibcode:2010JRASC.104..210M. ISSN   0035-872X.
  6. 1 2 "David Charbonneau at Harvard University". www.cfa.harvard.edu. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  7. ↑ "ASP: 2004 Award Winners Press Release". www.astrosociety.org. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Charbonneau gets prestigious 'young researcher' award". Science and Engineering. Harvard University. Archived from the original on March 9, 2009. Retrieved March 5, 2009.
  9. ↑ "The Raymond & Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences - Laureates 2012". www.tau.ac.il.
  10. ↑ "Margaret Bourdeaux". John F. Kennedy School of Government. Harvard University.
  11. ↑ "Interview With Margaret Bourdeaux – TEDxBeaconStreet". TEDxBeaconStreet. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Carolyn Bourdeaux". @Carolyn4GA7. June 9, 2020 – via Twitter.
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