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DR. MARGARET CAROL TURNBULL
Margaret Carol Turnbull, Ph.D. is lead scientist for NASA's
New Worlds Observer
and works on various programs to find life elsewhere in the universe.
Other interests include green technology, permaculture, and politics.
She is an authority on "Habstars", solar twins, and planetary
habitability.
In 2002, Maggie developed the
HabCat along with Jill Tarter, a
catalog of potentially habitable solar systems. The following year
she went on to further identify 30 particularly suitable stars from
the 5,000 in the HabCat list that are within 100 light years of Earth.
In 2006, she drew up two shortlists of just five stars each.
The first will form the basis of SETI radio searches with the Allen
Telescope Array (Beta Canum Venaticorum, HD 10307, HD 211415, 18
Scorpii, and 51 Pegasi). The second are her top candidates for the
Terrestrial Planet Finder (Epsilon Indi, Epsilon Eridani, 40 Eridani,
Alpha Centauri B, and Tau Ceti).
In 2007, Maggie was named a
"Genius" by CNN for her work
cataloging stars most likely to develop planets that could support life
and intelligent civilizations.
The asteroid 7863 Turnbull was named in her honor.
Maggie coauthored
Target Selection for SETI. I. A Catalog of Nearby Habitable Stellar
Systems,
Detectability of Planetary Characteristics in Disk-Averaged Spectra.
I:
The Earth Model,
A Reappraisal of The Habitability of Planets around M Dwarf
Stars,
Optical and Near-Infrared Model Images of the Circumstellar
Environments
of Classical T Tauri Stars, and
Spectrum of a Habitable World: Earthshine in the
Near-Infrared, and authored
The search for habitable worlds: From the Terrestrial Planet Finder
to
SETI.
Maggie earned her B.S. in Astronomy-Physics at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998, her M.S. in Astronomy at the
University of Arizona in 2001, and her Ph.D. in Astronomy at the
University of Arizona in 2004.
Listen to her on NPR's
Science Friday.
Read her
blog.
Print bio!
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