Science has barely scratched the surface of space exploration … – Kearney Hub

KEARNEY Despite being able to give finite predictions for solar events such as the eclipse, science has just barely scratched the surface of space exploration, a visiting astronomer to Kearney explained to a room full of space fans.

Assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University Tabetha Boyajian gave a presentation on eclipses Sunday, the eve of the Great American Eclipse, at the Merryman Performing Arts Center.

I tried to take that (presentation) to not just talking about the solar eclipse and why its happening (today) but try and put that in the perspective of the whole universe, Boyajian said.

Eclipses arent unique to Earth, Boyajian explained to a full crowd. These special alignments occur throughout the solar system and all through the galaxy whether its a moon blocking light from the sun or a planet going in front of a star, which is referred to as a transit.

Science is the ability to predict certain things, and were able to do it for the eclipse because weve studied it for thousands of years and were able to predict these things down to very, very fine positions and measurements, Boyajian said. Space as a whole is very unexplored, and were just kind of scraping the surface of these kind of things that we can discover in space and thats really exciting.

Boyajian, who gave a TEDTalk on her work, earned her doctorate from Georgia State University and was awarded the Hubble Fellowship. After continuing her research at Georgia State for three years, she did her postdoctorate at Yale University. It was there that she become part of the Yale Exoplanet Group.

My research interests are primarily in nearby stellar systems and those with planets going around them what we call exoplanets and trying to detect them.

Her work focuses on the unknown specifically KIC 8462852, a mysterious star that displays odd behavior.

Its surprising because it doesnt do the things that stars do or that we think that stars do, Boyajian said.

The star shows variations in brightness, which have caused scientists to hypothesize scenarios from comet dust to alien megastructures.

Despite results they receive on the bizarre star, however, the data still hasnt pointed scientists down the right track, Boyajian said.

Nature is a lot more creative than we are. Theres no way of telling what its going to throw at us next.

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Science has barely scratched the surface of space exploration ... - Kearney Hub