ZOOM MEETING : Recent Adventures with Extrasolar Planets
Aug 20, 2020 12:00 PM
Dr. G. Fritz Benedict
ZOOM MEETING : Recent Adventures with Extrasolar Planets
Twenty years ago I figured I was done with a star that we thought might have a planet; Proxima Centauri. We found nothing. Now, the year 2020 has brought (along with a pandemic) new evidence that there might be a planet there after all. Can my very old Hubble Space Telescope data help to confirm this recent discovery? If so, how? Using astrometry! (What’s that?)
About Dr. G. Fritz Benedict, Senior Research Scientist (ret.), McDonald Observatory, University of Texas
Benedict received his Ph. D. in 1972 from Northwestern University, immediately joining the University of Texas at Austin. He retired as a Senior Research Scientist with McDonald Observatory.
In 1977 Benedict became a member of the Hubble Space Telescope AstrometryScience Team. His project responsibilities included designing a Guide Star Selection System for the HST, used as the basis for the system now in use at the Space Telescope Science Institute. After HST launch in 1990, his astrometric scientific interests have centered on sub-millisecond of arc precision parallaxes (precise distances to stars) and the astrometric characterization of low mass companions to stars (exoplanet masses).
His interest in space astrometry led to participation in more than twenty Guest Observer projects with Hubble Space Telescope over the last 25 years, most as Principal Investigator. From 2010 to 2019 Benedict served as the Secretary of the American Astronomical Society, a position that sounds far more boring than it actually was. Benedict has given literally hundreds of public outreach lectures over the last 45 years. Aside from enjoying the performance aspects, his primary motivation is payback. All over the world astronomy lives on donations, coerced (taxes) or voluntary.
Benedict’s interests outside astronomy include sailing a Catalina 22 on what’s left of Lake Travis, reading, walking his ridiculously small dog, and shirking home maintenance.