| Today is:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| en Français | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Canadian Astronomer Profile: Dr. Peter Brown Peter Brown Assistant Professor, University of Western Ontario
Professor Brown, posing beside telescope
and camera on a recent observing expedition. Education Background:
Research Interests: "Small bodies in the solar system
and how they interact with the Earth. In the last few decades it has become
clear that the Earth is greatly affected by cosmic debris (just ask the
dinosaurs). Asteroid and comet impacts lead to large-scale species extinctions,
they helped in the delivery of organic material to the young Earth and
may have acted as a possible catalyst for early life and dangers to "As one example, we are using a
radar to look for interstellar dust impacting the Earth's upper atmosphere.
This is literally dust from other stellar systems and small amounts of
it are believed to reach Earth's upper atmosphere where it then burns
up as a meteor leaving an ionization trail in its wake. By bouncing radar
waves off this ionization trail we can measure the direction the particle
was travelling when it encountered the Earth and hopefully identify stellar
systems in our neighborhood Research Collaborations:
Why study in Canada? "Canada is one of the best places
in the world to do research. I think that Interested in becoming an Astronomer? "If you are interested in Astronomy, then stick with it. Many professional astronomers today (myself included) got started as amateur astronomers and this is a great way to build interest, contacts in the community and start the (never-ending) learning process. If you have a real passion for Astronomy, consider becoming an undergraduate in either physics or astronomy. This requires good math and analytic skills - for those who really enjoy this route, graduate studies are the next obvious avenue. "There are also careers in Astronomy that do not necessarily require the heavy math skills some people find difficult; consider journalism and specialize in science/astronomy - there is an enormous need for excellent public communicators in Astronomy both in the print and broadcast media." Related Links:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||