Meet the astronomers. See where they work. Know what they know.

The Project:

The Cosmic Diary is not just about astronomy. It's more about what it is like to be an astronomer.

The Cosmic Dairy aims to put a human face on astronomy: professional scientists will blog in text and images about their lives, families, friends, hobbies and interests, as well as their work, their latest research findings and the challenges that face them. The bloggers represent a vibrant cross-section of female and male working astronomers from around the world, coming from five different continents. Outside the observatories, labs and offices they are musicians, mothers, photographers, athletes, amateur astronomers. At work, they are managers, observers, graduate students, grant proposers, instrument builders and data analysts.

Throughout this project, all the bloggers will be asked to explain one particular aspect of their work to the public. In a true exercise of science communication, these scientists will use easy-to-understand language to translate the nuts and bolts of their scientific research into a popular science article. This will be their challenge.

Task Group:

Mariana Barrosa (Portugal, ESO ePOD)
Nuno Marques (Portugal, Web Developer)
Lee Pullen (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
André Roquette (Portugal, ESO ePOD)

Jack Oughton (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
Alice Enevoldsen (USA, Pacific Science Center)
Alberto Krone Martins (Brazil, Uni. S. Paulo / Uni. Bordeaux)
Kevin Govender (South Africa, S. A. A. O.)
Avivah Yamani (Indonesia, Rigel Kentaurus)
Henri Boffin (Belgium, ESO ePOD)

Avivah Yamani

27 years old, born in Ambon, Indonesia
Place of work: Langitselatan, Indonesia
Website: http://cosmicdiary.org/blogs/avivah_yamani_riyadi/

We have long wondered whether there could be planets orbiting the countless stars we see in the night sky. This is a voyage of discovery for astronomers whose scientific search began to bear fruit when the first extrasolar planets were found in the early 1990s. This article explains about the history of planet hunting, and the methods of finding them.

Thomas Dall

37 years old, born in Roskilde, Denmark
Place of work: European Southern Observatory
Website: http://www.cosmicdiary.org/blogs/eso/thomas_dall/

Magnetic fields within stars and extrasolar planets may seem like two totally separate topics, but as is often the case with astronomy, there are many surprising links. Join astronomer Thomas Dall as he explains how these two subjects help with his research.

Alberto Krone Martins

27 years old, born in São Paulo, Brazil
Place of work: Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil / Observatoire de Bordeaux, Université de Bordeaux I, France
Website: http://cosmicdiary.org/blogs/alberto_krone_martins/

This article explains the basics of measuring the Universe. It's a story that begins with Hipparchus of Nicaea, who lived around 140 BC, and ends with the prediction of astrometics labs aboard futuristic spacecraft. In between we'll learn about the motions of celestial objects, how to observe moving stars and the trick of using distant and exotic quasars as astronomical measuring sticks.

Gerard van Belle

40 years old, hometown Seattle, Washington, USA
Place of work: European Southern Observatory
Website: http://www.cosmicdiary.org/blogs/eso/gerard_van_belle/

400 years ago, many of the remarkable discoveries of Galileo were built upon the ability of the newly invented telescope to magnify planets into disks - worlds in their own right. The rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus, and Jupiter's major moons were all a result from the application of new technology to the night sky. In much the same way, astronomers are advancing the knowledge of stars through use of new technology in the study of these thermonuclear furnaces.

Claire Lee

25 years old, born in Johannesburg, South Africa
Place of work: CERN, Switzerland, via Physics Department, University of Johannesburg
Website: http://cosmicdiary.org/blogs/claire_lee/

Astronomers and particle physicists used to work independently from each other, but now more than ever there is significant overlap between the fields. The Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highestenergy particle accelerator, aims to use the science of the very small to answer questions of the grandest scales imaginable. Particle physicist Claire Lee explains how this is possible.