Astronomy student Leah Albrow is exploring planets beyond our solar system at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
A daughter of astronomers who found a second home at Canterbury’s Mt John Observatory, Albrow grew up with a sense of wonder and excitement about space. And she knows she’s not alone in her fascination.
“A lot of people I’ve met know the stars in the South Island better than I do. I can point to anything and ask, ‘What’s that?’ They’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s a star cluster. You can’t see it, but if you zoom in really close, there are actually three stars there,’” she says.
“There are many talented amateur astronomers in New Zealand – people who aren’t professional scientists but who know the stars well and have amazing equipment set-ups because it’s their passion.”
It’s a passion Albrow is helping harness as an intern at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The University of Canterbury student is among a cohort of five New Zealand postgraduates (the others are Celine Jane, Daniel Wrench, Jack Naish and Michaela Dobson) undertaking JPL internships supported by the government-funded New Zealand Space Scholarship programme and private sponsors.
During their internships, students are paired with JPL scientists or engineers who mentor them as they undertake specific projects to gain experience in their fields – as well as contribute to advancing the work of Nasa and the lab. For her 14 weeks at JPL, Albrow has been paired with mentors Anjali Tripathi and Rob Zellem, who are both experts on exoplanets – planets that lie beyond our solar system.
The two projects she’s working on include Nasa’s Exoplanet Watch citizen-science project, which allows people from all walks of life to get involved in studying distant worlds by collecting and analysing data on exoplanets.
In particular, when planets orbiting in other solar systems pass in front of their stars, the star looks a little dimmer. This passage is known as a transit, and a graph of the dip in brightness is known as a light curve. Citizen scientists can get involved in Exoplanet Watch by observing exoplanet transits if they have a telescope or, if not, processing data gathered from other telescopes to create light curves.
Albrow says there’s a lot to be learnt from these transits: they can help us know more about the characteristics of an exoplanet, for example, and variations in the timing of transits can indicate the existence of other exoplanets. Importantly, understanding previous transits can also help better predict when future transits will occur so specific exoplanets can be followed up for further investigation by large telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope.
As part of her work, Albrow has been combining data on the light curves captured by citizen scientists to create a more accurate overall picture of transits, as well as analysing how much time is being saved by being able to more precisely predict these events. “The real power of [the project] is to support large telescopes. So, if we wanted to use the James Webb Space Telescope to look at a planet, if the uncertainty is really small, you’re much more likely to get that observation and it optimises the use of those bigger observatories.”
Sun-like it hot
The other part of her internship, overseen by astrophysicist Tripathi, who is science ambassador for Nasa’s Exoplanet Exploration Programme, has seen her involved in Nasa’s Eyes on Exoplanets project. “Nasa has just released a big list of stars, which are potential sun-like stars that there could be exoplanets around that are similar to the Earth and that we haven’t looked at yet … I’m looking at all of the stars on this list and I’m doing a literature review of them; I’m going through and finding more information about those stars, which is important because it can inform other astronomers’ [future] observations.”
A big part of the internship experience is about being exposed more generally to new people and new ideas. Sitting in on a talk given by Nasa astronaut Jessica Watkins, who served as a mission specialist on the space agency’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station, was “amazing”, she says. Then there’s the Mars Yard, a simulated Martian landscape used to test different robotic prototypes where she recently observed testing for EELS – a project developing a snake-like robotic surveyor that fellow Kiwi Jack Naish is working on during his internship.
“Another thing that is really cool about the environment is you’ll mention you’re interested in something and someone will say, ‘Oh, I know a person who does that. You need to talk to them.’ If you are interested in any area, then people will try to help you out.”
Growing up with parents who themselves are renowned astronomers helped spur this interest, of course. Her father, Michael Albrow, is an associate professor in physics and astronomy at the University of Canterbury, where her mother, Karen Pollard, is an associate professor and dean and director of the university’s Mt John Observatory in Tekapo.
“Honestly, that felt like the closest thing to a second home to me, running around among the domes during the day and then seeing the most amazing sky at night. It would be really hard to not at least have some level of appreciation for the beauty of the night sky and astronomy even if I hadn’t pursued it down the scientific route – but I obviously got there as well.”
Despite her exposure from a young age, studying astronomy wasn’t a given. Alongside maths and physics, Albrow enjoyed classics, history and writing while at Riccarton High School. But taking part in a physics competition in Year 12, in which she undertook hands-on research, confirmed she wanted to follow a scientific path.
Next stop Mars
Albrow will embark on her honours year in astronomy when she returns from the internship, combining course work with a project investigating how planets form around large stars. Beyond that, she thinks she’d like to continue with research and do a PhD overseas focused on planetary science.
“It’s a really exciting field to be a part of at this time. They’re going to bring [back] samples from Mars, they’re going to land on the moon again, so we’re going to see all this lunar geology done, so I think a lot of really exciting experiments will be coming up around planetary science.”
In the meantime, she is keen to encourage more southern stargazers to observe the skies above them with intent and get involved in projects such as Exoplanet Watch. “One of the big things about citizen science is it allows people to feel that connection to where they’re from.
“Just knowing the trees or the animals around where you live, or knowing the stars around where you’re from, gives you a sense of where you are in the world – and that can add a lot of meaning to your life.” l
