Research Astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Dr Aki Roberge (born
c. 1973) is a research
astrophysicist at
NASA ’s
Goddard Space Flight Center , where she is currently the Associate Director for Technology and Strategy.
[1] Her research focuses on observational studies of
debris disks
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5] and planet formation around nearby
young stars ,
[6]
[7] with an aim to be able to characterize planets around other stars,
[8] perhaps even to find signs of life on them.
[9] She is particularly known for her research on the debris disk around
Beta Pictoris .
[10]
[11]
Early life and education
Born in
Kyoto , Japan,
[12] to an American
potter
[13] and a Japanese
Chemical engineer ,
[9] Roberge grew up in a rural community in
Vermont and was exposed to science in high school. She earned a
bachelor's degree in
Physics with a minor in
Planetary science from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996 with
Jim Elliot (discoverer of the
rings of
Uranus )
[9] and a PhD in
Astrophysics from
Johns Hopkins University in 2002. Her thesis work, conducted under the guidance of Hopkins Professor Paul D. Feldman, was titled "Ultraviolet spectroscopy of circumstellar disks".
[14] She went on to conduct
postdoctoral research at the
Carnegie Institution for Science with
Alycia J. Weinberger before taking a position at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 2005.
NASA work
Her early work at NASA continued to focus on debris disks, in particular Beta Pictoris, for which she is a recognized expert.
[15] Her work was crucial in demonstrating its extreme carbon-rich nature,
[11]
[16] and later in studying the carbon monoxide gas clouds indicating swarms of colliding comets in the young system.
[17]
[18]
[19]
In 2013 she served as one of the members of the study that produced a 30-year roadmap for NASA astrophysics.
[20] Her work has included substantial contributions to mission concept development, in particular being deeply involved in developing future space missions for exoplanet detection,
[21] including the
starshade approach to blocking starlight.
[22]
LUVOIR
From 2016 to 2019 she served as the Study Scientist for the
Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR) mission concept, a multi-wavelength
space telescope design developed by
NASA as one of four large astrophysics space mission concepts
[23] studied in preparation for the
National Academy of Sciences 2020
Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey .
[24]
[25] A primary aim of LUVOIR is to enable the investigation of a wide range of
exoplanets ,
[26] specifically to be able to discern those that might be
habitable
[27] or even inhabited.
[28]
[29] Under Roberge's leadership LUVOIR was also designed
[30] with broader capabilities to build on and surpass
[28] those of the
Hubble Space Telescope ,
James Webb Space Telescope , and
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope , enabling groundbreaking studies of the
early universe ,
galaxy formation and evolution ,
star and
planet formation , and
Solar System bodies. This concept was compelling enough that, in 2021, a mission aligned with these goals was selected as the top priority large space mission for NASA to build across the following decades.
[31]
From 2020 to 2021 Roberge was the Deputy Program Scientist for the
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope , during which time she worked on a team to document the connection between Roman's coronagraph and LUVOIR needs.
[32] Since 2022 she has been the Associate Director for Technology and Strategy in Astrophysics at Goddard.
[1]
Roberge is a noted expert on debris disks, especially for studies of the disk around
Beta Pictoris .
[16]
References
^
a
b
"Aki Roberge's Home Page" . asd.gsfc.nasa.gov . Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^
"NASA Goddard's Aki Roberge Explains about Beta Pictoris" . EurekAlert! . Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^
"What's Cooler Than One Comet? A Storm of Them" . Time . Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^
"A Chaotic Planet-Forming Disk" . Sky & Telescope . March 6, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^ Aki Roberge; Alycia J. Weinberger; Seth Redfield & Paul D. Feldman (June 20, 2005). "Rapid Dissipation of Primordial Gas from the AU Microscopii Debris Disk". The Astrophysical Journal . 626 (2): L105–L108.
arXiv :
astro-ph/0505302 .
Bibcode :
2005ApJ...626L.105R .
doi :
10.1086/431899 .
S2CID
367734 .
^
"Exoplanets and the Search for Life - An Exploration in Four Lectures - Speakers from NASA & Yale University" . PSW Science . Retrieved August 28, 2022 .
^
"Astronomers expect to find many more Earth-like planets" . Financial Times . February 16, 2018. Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^
"20 Big Questions about the Future of Humanity" .
Scientific American . 315 (3): 85–86. September 1, 2016.
doi :
10.1038/scientificamerican0916-28 .
PMID
27924887 .
^
a
b
c
"NASA Astrobiology" . astrobiology.nasa.gov . Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^ Roberge, A.; Feldman, P. D.; Lagrange, A. M.; Vidal-Madjar, A.; Ferlet, R.; Jolly, A.; Lemaire, J. L.; Rostas, F. (August 1, 2000). "High-Resolution HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE STIS Spectra of C I and CO in the β Pictoris Circumstellar Disk". The Astrophysical Journal . 538 (2): 904.
arXiv :
astro-ph/0003446 .
Bibcode :
2000ApJ...538..904R .
doi :
10.1086/309157 .
S2CID
73592760 .
^
a
b Roberge, Aki; Feldman, Paul D.; Weinberger, Alycia J.; Deleuil, Magali; Bouret, Jean-Claude (June 8, 2006). "Stabilization of the disk around β Pictoris by extremely carbon-rich gas". Nature . 441 (7094): 724–726.
arXiv :
astro-ph/0604412 .
Bibcode :
2006Natur.441..724R .
doi :
10.1038/nature04832 .
PMID
16760971 .
S2CID
118990440 .
^
"Imagine the Universe!" . imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov . Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^
"Ask an Astrobiologist" . astrobiology.nasa.gov . Retrieved September 2, 2022 .
^ Roberge, Aki (2003). Ultraviolet spectroscopy of circumstellar disks (Thesis).
ProQuest
305315892 .
^ Billings, Lee.
"Hundreds of Comets Seen Orbiting Distant Solar System" . Scientific American . Retrieved September 17, 2022 .
^
a
b
"The Birth of Carbon Planets?" . Sky & Telescope . June 9, 2006. Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^ Reddy, Francis (March 7, 2014).
"ALMA Reveals Unexpected Gas Clump in Debris Disc Around Beta Pictoris" . SciTechDaily . Retrieved September 17, 2022 .
^
"ALMA sees wreckage of comet collisions in nearby solar system" . ALMA Press Releases . March 6, 2014. Retrieved September 17, 2022 .
^ Subodh Varma (March 7, 2014).
"A cosmic whodunit unfolds as ALMA investigates mysterious gas blob – Times of India" . The Times of India . Retrieved September 17, 2022 .
^ Hall, Shannon (January 17, 2014).
"Enduring Quests and Daring Visions: NASA Lays Out a Roadmap for Astrophysics" . Universe Today . Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^ Kaufman, Marc (March 15, 2017).
"A Vision That Could Supercharge NASA" . Many Worlds . Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^ Wright, Chris.
"To Study the Next Earth, NASA May Need to Throw Some Shade" . Wired .
ISSN
1059-1028 . Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^
"Astronomers Dream Big, Consider Four Future Space Telescopes" . Sky & Telescope . November 3, 2021. Retrieved September 1, 2022 .
^ Foust, Jeff (January 21, 2019).
"Selecting the next great space observatory" .
The Space Review . Retrieved September 20, 2020 .
^
"Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020)" .
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine . March 23, 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2021 .
^ Bartels, Meghan (March 2, 2020).
"Meet LUVOIR, which might become one of NASA's next big space telescopes" . Space.com . Retrieved September 2, 2022 .
^ Wright, Chris.
"The Gaia Mission Keeps Unlocking Secrets of the Galaxy" . Wired .
ISSN
1059-1028 . Retrieved September 2, 2022 .
^
a
b
"New Space Telescopes Race For A New View Of The Cosmos" . Science Friday . Retrieved September 2, 2022 .
^ Gasparini, Allison.
"Our Sun Could Someday Reveal the Surfaces of Alien Earths" . Scientific American . Retrieved September 2, 2022 .
^ Kaufman, Marc (March 15, 2017).
"A Vision That Could Supercharge NASA" . Many Worlds . Retrieved September 2, 2022 .
^ Witze, Alexandra (November 4, 2021).
"US astronomy's 10-year plan is super-ambitious" . Nature . 599 (7884): 192–193.
Bibcode :
2021Natur.599..192W .
doi :
10.1038/d41586-021-03027-y .
PMID
34737412 .
S2CID
243761658 .
^ Mennesson, B.; Juanola-Parramon, R.; Nemati, B.; Ruane, G.; Bailey, V.; Bolcar, M.; Martin, S.; Zimmerman, N.; Stark, C.; Pueyo, L.; Benford, D.; Cady, E.; Crill, B.; Douglas, E.; Gaudi, B. (2020). "Paving the Way to Future Missions: the Roman Space Telescope Coronagraph Technology Demonstration".
S2CID
221112127 .
External links