InterViews

Geoffrey Marcy
astronomy
(recorded in 2009)

Listen to the Interview (mp3, 30mb)
(32 minutes)

Scroll down to listen to the 2003 interview

It’s a simple question, really: are there planets around other stars? Yet when astronomer Geoffrey Marcy posed it over 20 years ago, most of the scientific community thought it was impossible to answer. Finding other worlds like our own challenged the best technology at the time. Because stars are so bright and planets so comparably small and dim, even the largest telescopes could not directly distinguish a planet in the glare of its sun.
Marcy developed a technique to indirectly detect planets instead. As a planet orbits, it tugs gravitationally on its star, causing a tiny wobble. The wobble shifts the star’s light, and the size of that shift can tell a planet-hunter how large the planet is and how closely it circles its sun. By measuring changes in starlight over time—and refining his technique for over a decade—Marcy became one of the first humans to spot planets beyond our solar system and prove their existence. He has since discovered more extrasolar planets than anyone else. 
Marcy now leads the search for Earth-like planets and life elsewhere in the universe. He is a professor of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002.

Interview Highlights  

Marcy describes his quiet childhood in 1960s southern California, his household’s place in the women’s and civil rights movements, and the rickety telescope that sparked his curiosity about planets and the universe. Inspired by the beauty he glimpsed through its 4-inch lens and “nudged” by his aerospace engineer father to excel in science, he grapples with physics and astronomy in college and graduate school. In a fit of despair over problems with his postdoctoral research, Marcy decides to pursue a question that interests him personally but lies far outside the mainstream of mid-1980s astronomy research: is it possible to find planets around other suns?
His pursuit lasts 12 years and “embarrasses” many of his colleagues, he says, but it ultimately leads to success and fame when he and his longtime collaborator, Paul Butler, confirm the discovery of the first extrasolar planet in 1995. Marcy details the technical challenges of planet-hunting and candidly discusses his views on intelligent life elsewhere in our galaxy. He advises young would-be scientists to think carefully about their reasons for going into the field, and shares his surprising conviction that—despite his accomplishments—he should have quit science earlier in life. 

Geoffrey Marcy's 2003 Interview (requires free RealPlayer software):

 TRACK 1
Marcy describes how he became fascinated with stars when his parents give him a map of the solar system and a used telescope. He then recounts how his academic pursuits were inspired by the Apollo missions and lectures by the astronomer Carl Sagan. (12 minutes)

 TRACK 2
Marcy recalls how he became disillusioned with his doctoral research on measuring the magnetic fields of stars, not knowing that the expertise he gained in high-resolution spectroscopy would be crucial to his life's work. Hitting a professional low, he decided to pursue a question that his colleagues at the time believed couldn't be answered: Do other planets exist, including ones like Earth? (10 minutes)

 TRACK 3
Marcy talks about how indirect observation can prove that something exists. He describes how he teamed up with Paul Butler at San Francisco State University, cobbling together resources and innovative techniques to hunt for planets. (9 minutes)

 TRACK 4
Marcy explains how he and Butler stayed motivated while going down many blind alleys before making their first discovery after 10 years of collaboration. He recounts finding their first two planets. (10 minutes)

 TRACK 5
Marcy describes the media flurry around his discoveries and the transition to the University of California, Berkeley. His next exciting pursuit, he says, is to try to locate a solar system with a planet like Jupiter, whose gravitational mass and orbit protects Earth from asteroids and comets. Such a planet would be a signpost that could aid efforts to find a planet similar to Earth. (10 minutes)

 TRACK 6
Marcy talks about new theories of planet formation and evolution, and how solar systems evolve over time. He predicts that within our lifetime, we will know if there are other planets like Earth in the universe. (13 minutes)

Last Updated: 07-19-2004