Carole Ann Haswell | |
|---|---|
 Haswell in anOpen University video in 2019 | |
| Alma mater | University of Texas at Austin (PhD), University of Oxford (BSc) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Open University Space Telescope Science Institute Columbia University University of Sussex |
| Thesis | The Black Hole Candidate Binary A0620-00. (1992) |
Carole Ann Haswell is a British astrophysicist and current Professor of Astrophysics and Head of Astronomy at theOpen University. She is a Fellow of theRoyal Astronomical Society. She has been involved in the detection of several exoplanets, includingBarnard's Star b.
Haswell was born inSaltburn-by-the-Sea,North Yorkshire, and grew up inDormanstown.[1] Her father worked on an ammonia recovery plant atImperial Chemical Industries.[1] She became interested in space as a child, when her father told her about theApollo astronauts as they gazed at the Moon while onRedcar beach.[1] Although she originally wanted to be anastronaut, she realised at the age of ten that this was impractical.[2]
She attendedHuntcliff School where she worked towards herGCE Ordinary Levels.[2] Whilst a student atPrior Pursglove and Stockton Sixth Form College, Haswell was interested in art, mathematics and physics, and was a fan of the television showStar Trek.[1] One of her physics teachers was rumoured to be biased against girls, and despite Haswell achieving the highest grades possible in herA-level exams, refused to write her a reference to study physics at university.[2] She eventually studied mathematics at theUniversity of Oxford, but wanted to apply mathematics to the real world and became tired of abstract proofs.[2]
Haswell eventually spoke toDonald Blackwell who helped her transfer courses, and enrolled on a physics degree atUniversity College, Oxford.[2] During her time as an undergraduate student, Haswell was President of the Oxford University Astronomical Society and rowed in theSummer Eights.[2] Haswell earned her doctorate at theUniversity of Texas at Austin, where she worked onblack hole binaries.[2] She attended theHubble Space Telescope launch in 1990.[2] She later joined theSpace Telescope Science Institute, where she worked onaccretion flow and multi-wavelength observations.[2]
In 1994, Haswell moved toColumbia University, where she worked onblack holeX-ray transients andcataclysmic variable stars.[2] She was made a lecturer at theBarnard College where one of her students wasLauryn Hill.[2] Haswell moved back to theUnited Kingdom in 1996 and was made a lecturer at theUniversity of Sussex.
Since 1999, she has been at theOpen University, at first still working onblack holes and accreting binary stars and switching to exoplanet research in 2003.[2] Early work onexoplanets was not well funded, and Haswell has spoken about using second handCanon camera lenses to make suitable telescopes.[1]
First working on accreting binary stars, and then exoplanets.[2] In particular, Haswell studies short period exoplanets.[3] Since 2012 she has led theDispersed Matter Planet Project, which involves the analysis of light from nearby stars to identify which host mass-losing planets.[4]
In 2018 Haswell was part of the team that was first to identify a planet aroundBarnard's Star, the closest single (non-binary) star to Earth, a red dwarf star that is six light years away from Earth. Using theradial velocity method, the team discoveredBarnard's Star b.[1] The planetary system aroundBarnard's Star touches on the edge of theOort cloud.[1]Barnard's Star b has a mass three times that of Earth and orbits Barnard's Star in 233 days.[1] Haswell has predicted that the planet may have a similar surface temperature toEuropa.[1]
In 2019 Haswell used theHigh Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) to discover six extraordinarily hot exoplanets (with surface temperatures between 1100 and 1800 °C).[5] At temperatures this high the atmosphere and surface levels of the planet can be lost, and the materials disperse into a thin sheet of gas.[5] The gas filters the light from nearby stars, which allowed Haswell and colleagues to study the chemical composition of the atmosphere of the gas sheet.[5] The planets have masses equivalent to 2.6 times the mass of the Earth with almost half the mass of Jupiter.[6] Haswell has proposed that these planets could be used to understand the geology of the rocky planets in Earth's solar system.[5]
She is part of the team forCHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite (CHEOPS), which will examine known exoplanets to improve our understanding of their sizes.[7] CHEOPS, which features a 35 cm telescope, launched in December 2019.[7]
Haswell has been featured in aRoyal Astronomical Society exhibition on women fellows.[8] She regularly provides expert opinion to the national media and is involved with various outreach programmes through theInternational Astronomical Union.[9][10] Haswell was awarded theOpen University Outreach and Public Engagement Award for her work targeted at people with low science capital inTeesside.[11]
Haswell has a daughter.[1] She is interested in thestock market and has used her understanding of astrophysics to buy and sell stocks.[2]
Haswell's publications include:
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