The Irish Tech News Podcast Looking for Near Earths in the Alpha Centauri Region (NEAR) with Dr Kevin Wagner
In this podcast Melanie Boylan had a chat with Kevin Wagner a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory. They discussed his successful work with the experiment/instrument is called “NEAR”: New Earths in the Alpha Centauri region.
Dr. Wagner's research focuses on directly detecting and studying planets around nearby stars, with a specific focus on finding and characterizing potentially life supporting planets. His team’s recent work has enabled imaging planets that are approximately Neptune-sized in the habitable zone of the closest Sun-like star, Alpha Centauri, which shows that imaging smaller, potentially Earth-like planets is closely within reach. Dr. Wagner grew up in Kentucky, USA, and in his spare time enjoys exploring the mountains and deserts that are also home to the observatories and giant cacti of Southern Arizona.