Planetary scientist Michele Dougherty made first feminine UK astronomer royal | Astronomy

A planetary scientist whose analysis revealed the opportunity of extraterrestrial life on one in all Saturn’s moons has been made the primary feminine astronomer royal.

Prof Michele Dougherty, a number one area physicist who was a researcher for the Nasa Cassini mission, has been awarded the 350-year-old honorary title. In 2021, Catherine Heymans, a professor of astrophysics on the University of Edinburgh, grew to become the primary feminine astronomer royal for Scotland, a submit established in 1834.

As an investigator on two main area missions, Dougherty has performed a job in main discoveries within the photo voltaic system, together with the revelation that jets of water vapour shoot out of one in all Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, that means it could possibly help life.

Dougherty mentioned she was “absolutely delighted” along with her appointment. She added: “As a young child I never thought I’d end up working on planetary spacecraft missions and science, so I can’t quite believe I’m actually taking on this position. In this role I look forward to engaging the general public in how exciting astronomy is, and how important it and its outcomes are to our everyday life.”

The function of astronomer royal was created in 1675, with the goal of discovering the right way to decide longitude at sea when out of sight of land. The outgoing astronomer royal, Martin Rees, is retiring from the function.

Dougherty advised BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday: “I’ve always wanted to make sure that if I’m ever selected for a role, it’s because of what I do, and not because I’m female. Particularly for young girls, seeing someone who looks like them in a role like this will potentially allow them to dream that they might be able to do something like this in the future. So if it makes just a few people think: ‘Oh maybe I can do something that looks a bit scary,’ then I would have achieved one of the things I’d like to achieve.”

She will maintain the function alongside her present positions as govt chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, president-elect of the Institute of Physics and as a professor of area physics at Imperial College London.

She mentioned she feared for the way forward for science funding. “Things are unsettled right now across the world on a range of fronts. That’s why it’s so important that in the UK we are very open about why we do the research we do and why it is so important to the health and wellbeing of the UK economy.”

Her major function will likely be to “talk to people about the science we do and how it can impact people” She mentioned she wished to “enthuse and excite people”.

Dougherty, 62, was born in South Africa and has English and Irish heritage. When she was about 10 years previous, her father constructed a telescope, and Dougherty and her sister helped combine the concrete for its base. “My first view of Jupiter and its four large moons and Saturn and its rings was through my dad’s telescope,” she advised Today.

Her experience lies in designing and working devices to measure the magnetic discipline in area on Nasa and European Space Agency (Esa) probes.

She seen a “tiny anomaly” within the Cassini spacecraft’s measurement of the magnetic discipline because the probe flew by Enceladus in 2005, suggesting the moon might need an surprising environment. She satisfied Nasa chiefs to ship Cassini again for a better look.

She told the Times: “I didn’t sleep for the first couple of nights beforehand. Imagine if we hadn’t seen anything. No one would have believed anything I said ever again. But we saw that, instead of an atmosphere, it was a water vapour plume coming out of the south pole.”

Enceladus is now thought of one of the crucial promising locations to search for alien life. Dougherty has designed devices to search out out extra, together with a magnetometer that’s two years into an eight-year journey onboard Esa’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission. It will scan Ganymede, the photo voltaic system’s largest moon, which is larger than Mercury and the one one with a spinning core, searching for a “global ocean” beneath the floor.

Dougherty started work on Cassini in 1992 and the probe operated till 2017. She began on Juice in 2008; it would attain Jupiter in 2031 and function till 2035.

Prof Dame Angela McLean, the federal government’s chief scientific adviser, mentioned: “Warm congratulations to Professor Michele Dougherty on her appointment to the distinguished position of astronomer royal. This is a fitting recognition of her outstanding work and enduring commitment to the field of astronomy.”