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I'm really inspired by large things.
Large machines,
large stretches of time,
large objects that are and hundreds of thousands of light years across.
Astronomer Sandra Faber's
windows to the world are majestic telescopes
that reveal the intricacies of galaxy formation and the beauty of the stars.
Not only do I like tangible things, big things, impressive things,
but I'm also drawn to subjects about which very little is known.
As I entered graduate school nobody could tell me where a galaxy came from.
One of the great burning questions of the time was,
"Why there ellipticals?"
versus "Why are there spirals?"
Faber soon replaced her "why" with a "how."
Using wavelength spectroscopy
Faber and colleague Robert Jackson
measured the visible light from elliptical galaxies.
We plotted the speed of motion versus the brightness.
When you look at its observed brightness then
you can deduce how far away is.
So we had overnight a new way of measuring
distances to galaxies much more accurately than anybody had before.
This first and noisy scaling rule
set the stage to measure elliptical galaxies in the future.
And now we know a whole bunch of scaling laws for galaxies.
And in a nutshell
they have been absolutely crucial to establishing the cold dark matter
theory of galaxy formation.
The most basic question that we haven't answered yet
is "are we common or are we rare?"
Engine start, one, zero and liftoff.....
And the key step in answering that question is going to be
exoplanets.
Is the solar system rare?
Or is it common?