WVU Physics grad finds extraterrestrial weather

It was the first interstellar weather report of its kind outside our solar system, and a West Virginia University-trained physicist helped lead the three NASA teams that pulled it off.

Dr. Jeremy Richardson’s work with the high-tech Spitizer Space Telescope revealed scorching, dark and windy conditions on two planets light-years away from Earth.

It was the first examination ever of the atmospheres of planets rotating about stars other than our own Sun, said Richardson, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. - and it was significant, the 1997 WVU physics graduate said - for what it didn’t reveal: water.

The team’s findings were published this week (Feb. 22) in the journal Nature and also featured in a Feb. 22 New York Times article.

The Barrackville, Marion County native, was active in the Honors Program at WVU and considers retired professor and Honors Program Director Bill Collins as one of his mentors, along with current WVU physics professors Marty Ferer and Mark Koepke.

For more, see NASA Goddard news.