The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

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Mark Weber

Center for Astrophysics

Astrophysicist

Mark Weber

mweber@cfa.harvard.edu

About

I am a solar physicist working for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in the Solar-Stellar X-ray Group (SSXG) at CfA. My scientific interests are in studying the structure and evolution of the corona and in developing state-of-the-art inversion and statistical methods for interpreting solar data. I have been on the instrument team of several space-based solar telescopes, participating in science, operations, calibration, outreach, data analysis software and techniques, and management. In particular, I was the U.S. Project Scientist for the international mission Hinode's X-Ray Telescope (XRT) from pre-launch through commissioning and into the science mission, and I have been the XRT's Project Manager since then.

Telescopes and Instruments

High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C)

Why the Sun’s corona — the wispy outermost atmosphere — is so much hotter than its surface stands as a big mystery in solar science. NASA’s High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) is an ultraviolet telescope designed to help solve the mystery, and understand the processes by which the Sun sends violent storms of particles into the Solar System. Since most of the light from the Sun’s atmosphere is blocked by air molecules on Earth, Hi-C is carried on a short-flight rocket into Earth’s upper atmosphere. Since 2012, Hi-C has flown three times, providing the highest resolution images of the corona and revealing new details in the Sun’s atmosphere. Hi-C is jointly operated by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, with contributions from other researchers around the world.

Visit the Hi-C Website

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)

Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars. Extrapolating from that knowledge, the Milky Way alone is probably home to hundreds of billions of planets, many of which are likely rocky, Earth-like worlds. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space observatory designed to look for exoplanets in orbit around 200,000 nearby bright stars, with a particular interest in identifying small planets. Astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian are part of the scientific team to analyze TESS data, as well as performing follow-up observations. The relative closeness of worlds in the TESS survey will allow astronomers to even study some of their atmospheres, using the future Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and other observatories. TESS observational program is complementary to NASA’s long-running Kepler/K2 mission, and could identify as many as 20,000 new exoplanet orbiting a wide variety of star types.

Visit the TESS Website

Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE)

The Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) was a space-based solar observatory which operated from 1998 through 2010. TRACE primarily observed in ultraviolet light to map the small-scale structure of the eruptions of gas on the Sun’s surface known as coronal loops, as well as the “transition region” where the Sun’s atmosphere increases in temperature dramatically. The telescope was a joint project of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, NASA, and Lockheed Martin. The long duration of the mission enabled TRACE to be the second space-based solar observatory to monitor an entire sunspot cycle, which provided valuable information on how the Sun’s magnetic field affects its atmosphere.

Hinode

The Sun is the closest star to Earth, and the single most important influence on the worlds of the Solar System in terms of the light and particles it emits. Studying the Sun, in other words, helps us understand the habitability of Earth, but also other stars elsewhere in the universe. One important solar observatory is the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Hinode spacecraft, which carries three powerful instruments to study the Sun in X-rays, visible light, and ultraviolet light. Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian engineers collaborated in the development of the X-ray Telescope for the spacecraft. Hinode has been observing the Sun continuously since its launch in 2006, providing important day-by-day information about our host star’s activity.

Visit the Hinode/XRT Website

Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)

The Sun’s surface is incandescently hot, but its outer atmosphere — the corona — is far hotter, for reasons astronomers don’t fully understand. NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is an orbiting observatory designed to study the mysterious transitional part of the Sun’s lower atmosphere, where the heating of the material flowing into the corona takes place. Understanding the heating process may help predict solar storms as well. Scientists and engineers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian contributed to the telescope for IRIS. In addition, CfA researchers participate in telescope operations, and provide scientific support and analysis for the observatory’s work.

Visit the IRIS Website