Two minutes

An astronomer who's studying stars from space

Steve Kawaler, an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy, has just started a three-year term as president of the variable stars division of the International Astronomical Union. He also serves on the 12-member steering committee of the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium. The international consortium will use data from NASA's Kepler Mission to study the internal structure of stars.

The Kepler Mission: NASA launched the Kepler CCD photometer (the equivalent of a 95-megapixel camera) into space on March 6, 2009, to look for earth-like planets in our part of the Milky Way. It also allows astronomers such as Kawaler to get a much clearer look at the stars they study.

A better view: Kawaler has served as director of the Whole Earth Telescope, a research collaboration that coordinates star observations and shares data. But viewing stars from earth was full of challenges -- even the weather can be a major problem. "Kepler will do this the right way," Kawaler said. "Kepler will give us a huge amount of data. About 170,000 stars will be observed every half hour, continuously, for three and a half years or more."

The thrill of science: Kawaler said Kepler's mission to look for planets that could support life was "the stuff that got me interested in astronomy when I was a kid."

See NASA's latest report on Kepler.

-- Mike Krapfl