Hosts:
Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)
Dr. Pamela Gay (astronomycast.com / cosmoquest.org / @starstryder)
Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier )
Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org)
Dr. Amanda R. Hendrix is a Senior Scientist with the Planetary Science Institute, based in Boulder.
She worked for twelve years at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was the Deputy Project Scientist for the Cassini–Huygens mission (2010-2012). She has been a scientific investigator on the Cassini, Galileo and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter missions, a principal investigator on NASA research and Hubble Space Telescope observing programs, and is the author of many scientific papers. Her science focus is on moons in the solar system, including Earth’s moon and those of Jupiter and Saturn, their composition and evolution. She is the director of NASA’s Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX). She co-authored Beyond Earth: Our Path to a new Home in the Planets, published by Penguin/Random house in Nov 2016. Hendrix received a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder.
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The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest.
Question, though not directly related to this week’s hangout (which was great, BTW!)
Cepheid Variables – OK, so I understand the whole thing about Henrietta Swan Levitt cataloging LMC variables and correlating variable period with overall luminosity. What I can’t find or figure out is WHY a cepheid’s period is related to its luminosity. I can’t wrap my head around it. Why does the pulsation period have anything at all to do with the star’s overall maximum brightness? I’m clearly missing some basic information.