At 30 years old, Michelle Kunimoto already has more than 3,000 planet candidates under her belt.
Inspired by science fiction and curiosity, the University of British Columbia astronomy graduate is passionate about searching for exoplanets — bodies orbiting stars outside our own solar system.
She’s currently leading a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hunting for them. In 2024, Kunimoto will return to her alma mater as an assistant professor in UBC’s department of physics and astronomy.
“She is an excellent exoplanet hunter,” said UBC astrophysicist Jaymie Matthews of his former student. “Twenty years from now, Michelle Kunimoto will be a big name in exoplanets.
“When she started, the only science she knew was Star Trek. Now she is the real Spock.”
Kunimoto, of Abbotsford, B.C., told CBC News about her dream of discovering a habitable planet, one that could potentially host life in what’s nicknamed the “Goldilocks zone” where atmospheric conditions are just right.
UBC graduate discovers more than 3,000 likely planets
Astronomer Michelle Kunimoto explains how she uses data from NASA’s transiting exoplanet survey satellite to detect likely planets orbiting distant stars many light years away. The 30-year-old University of B.C. graduate has discovered more than 3,000 planetary candidates, and is set to join her alma mater’s astronomy faculty in 2024.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The basic idea is as a planet’s orbiting around a star it might pass in front of that star and block a little bit of its light.
We have a telescope that’s looking at the star, and measuring how bright it is over time. If we see a temporary decrease in the brightness of that star, that could be a planet blocking its light as it passes by.
And if this happens to repeat, let’s say every year, then that’s a good indication it’s a planet that takes a year to orbit that star.
Where do you get your data?
I use data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS mission…. It’s a telescope that’s up in space right now, looking at tens of millions of stars every month, measuring their brightness.
Technicians work to prepare NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) prior to its launch in 2018. TESS has led to the discovery of hundreds of confirmed exoplanets. (Submitted by Orbital ATK/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab)
So how many exoplanets have you discovered?
I have found over 3,000 candidates at this point, and the TESS mission itself has found just over 7,000.
It’s been the highlight of the work I’ve been doing.
What has to happen next to verify that they’re planets?
To confirm these, there’s typically a lot of work that has to be done.
Once we find a really good indication that we’ve got a planet, there’s followup from people around the world, and then you write a paper to describe all the results. That can take years of work.
At this point, about 56 of our candidates have been officially confirmed.
I’m still looking. That’s definitely a focus of my work.
Exoplanet names usually just have letters and numbers — but if you could name one planet, what would it be?
What I would do is look at the planets in science fiction — like Vulcan [from Star Trek] — and try to find the closest match of the candidates I found. Arthur C. Clarke [2001: A Space Odyssey] would be my favourite author from science fiction.
After finding thousands of likely planets yourself, is there one dream you have — the big ‘Eureka’ moment?
I would love to be able to find more of the potentially habitable planets … where we can eventually do things like potentially find signatures in the planet’s atmosphere that could indicate life exists on the surface of that planet.
To be directly involved with that type of research would be absolutely incredible.
What are you most looking forward to about being back at UBC?
It’s where I did both my undergrad and my PhD degrees. I love the department. I’m really looking forward to starting an exoplanet focus group at UBC,… really making UBC an attractive place for graduate students across Canada and the world to study exoplanets.
Do you have a ritual you do whenever you find a new planet? Or are you just like, ‘Oh, there’s another planet, add it to the list’?
I don’t really have a a ritual. But every one is still really exciting. I’m not tired of it.
I always try to look at what’s the most interesting thing about each of the planets I find.
There’s actually about 10 of the candidates we found so far that turned out to be among the rarest planets ever found, really giant exoplanets — the size of Jupiter — that orbit stars significantly smaller than our sun. Theory predicts that they shouldn’t exist, and yet we’ve been finding many more of them.
It reminds me why I really enjoy what I do.
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) searches for planets orbiting other stars. (Submitted by Ethan Kruse/University of Maryland/NASA)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
