Several astrobites authors are attending Extreme Solar Systems II in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We were just treated to a fantastic talk by Josh Carter about an exciting new discovery from the Kepler team. As explained in the press release, Kepler has discovered a real-life version of Tatooine! The newly minted planet, dubbed Kepler-16b, orbits both stars on a 229 day orbit and is roughly the same size as Saturn.
Artist's conception of Kepler-16. Credit; NASA
Courtney Dressing
I am a third-year graduate student in the Astronomy Department at Harvard University. My research interests include exoplanets, habitability, and astrobiology. I received a master's degree in astronomy and astrophysics from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University. At Princeton, I worked with Jill Knapp to study the magnetic activity of M dwarfs with white dwarf companions and with Dave Spiegel to model the habitability of terrestrial exoplanets. For my senior thesis, I worked with Ed Turner, Michael McElwain, and the SEEDS (Strategic Explorations of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru) collaboration to directly image young Jovian exoplanets using the Subaru telescope. At Harvard, I am working with Dave Charbonneau to analyze the Kepler data.
Latest posts by Courtney Dressing (see all)
- Spectra of Earths Around Other Stars - December 20, 2012
- Separating Signatures of Multiple Planets - December 7, 2012
- Searching for Giant Planets Around Baby Stars - November 8, 2012
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[...] Systems II conference in Jackson Hole with several of the Astrobites authors (see Ellie’s and Courtney’s posts), several scientists presented new measurements of transmission spectroscopy through the [...]
[...] it. Any of us brought up on a diet of science fiction has to get excited about ‘Tatooine’, aka Kepler 16b, the circumbinary planet. You may have also heard about Kepler 11 – the multiple planet system, [...]
[...] a recent note, astrobites author Courtney Dressing shared one of Kepler’s most exciting results thus far: a [...]
[...] it. Any of us brought up on a diet of science fiction has to get excited about ‘Tatooine’, aka Kepler 16b, the circumbinary planet. You may have also heard about Kepler 11 – the multiple planet system, [...]
[...] Kepler-16, when Kepler announced the discovery of “Tatooine,” a planet orbiting two Suns? Well, William Welsh has just introduced us [...]