WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.940 Tale of Two telescopes: Exoplanets. Hubble Space Telescope-- WFIRST. 2 00:00:06.140 --> 00:00:12.450 I'm Aki Roberge and I'm an astrophysicist at NASA's Godda rd Space Flight Center. 3 00:00:12.450 --> 00:00:16.920 Hi I'm Nikole Lewis I'm an assistant professor at Cornell University and I'm 4 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:22.890 an exoplanetary scientist. The very first project that I ever did when I 5 00:00:22.890 --> 00:00:27.390 started graduate school was used data from the Hubble Space Telescope and I 6 00:00:27.390 --> 00:00:33.260 checked my records and that was 1997. So I am definitely what you would call 7 00:00:33.260 --> 00:00:38.670 "Hubble hugger," one of the astronomers who had NASA's Great observatories like 8 00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:42.480 Hubble around pretty much for their entire careers. So I've been working with 9 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:49.020 the Hubble Space Telescope for almost a decade now actually using it to study 10 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:54.030 exoplanet atmospheres. I think I first started working on WFIRST about, let's see it 11 00:00:54.030 --> 00:00:59.879 was about four, four- five years ago now and so I'm involved with one of the 12 00:00:59.879 --> 00:01:06.060 teams that is --the science teams for the coronagraph instrument. So I've been 13 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:11.850 working on WFIRST now for a little over four years. I started back in about 14 00:01:11.850 --> 00:01:17.369 2015 we're getting into the fifth year now when they started the science 15 00:01:17.369 --> 00:01:20.490 investigation teams. It's really important to understand that Hubble 16 00:01:20.490 --> 00:01:25.439 wasn't designed to study exoplanets at all we didn't even know about them that 17 00:01:25.439 --> 00:01:30.450 they existed when Hubble was designed and launched, so the fact that we can 18 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:33.990 study exoplanets with Hubble is pretty awesome. With Hubble we're really looking 19 00:01:33.990 --> 00:01:38.400 at these planets that are on short-period orbits that are sometimes 20 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:42.750 called transiting exoplanets and often we're looking at light that's passing 21 00:01:42.750 --> 00:01:47.040 through these planets atmospheres as they pass in front of their host star. 22 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:51.689 WFIRST on the other hand is an exoplanet discovery machine, it's the machine you'd 23 00:01:51.689 --> 00:01:56.310 use like like Kepler was, to like just find out that hey there's a planet 24 00:01:56.310 --> 00:02:00.560 around that star. Now with WFIRST it's really going to leverage different 25 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:04.979 methodologies to look at exoplanets and it's gonna look at planets that are much 26 00:02:04.979 --> 00:02:09.810 farther away from their host stars. It has two different methods which one is 27 00:02:09.810 --> 00:02:13.470 microlensing that will help us to complete the census 28 00:02:13.470 --> 00:02:18.990 of exoplanets in our galaxy and the other will be enabled through the corona 29 00:02:18.990 --> 00:02:23.310 coronagraphic instrument which will actually take images of planets that are you know 30 00:02:23.310 --> 00:02:27.360 a little bit farther away from their stars compared with the ones that we use 31 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:32.850 Hubble to study. What I've learned from working on Hubble is that, first of all 32 00:02:32.850 --> 00:02:39.000 it's sort of expect the unexpected, and you can use a tool that was built for 33 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:42.990 one thing if it's you know a general purpose tool like NASA's Great 34 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:47.880 observatories were, you can use it for other things. Hubble was never designed 35 00:02:47.880 --> 00:02:52.500 to look at exoplanets and so we always have to use it in a very creative way to 36 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:56.430 do the science we want to do. WFIRST of course is getting designed to study 37 00:02:56.430 --> 00:02:59.580 exoplanets from the get-go but I think we're still going to have to find 38 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:05.060 creative ways to use WFIRSTto better understand exoplanets. 39 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:14.660 Explroe NASA.