Rebekah Dawson studies how planetary systems formed and evolved. Kepler has revealed that many of the planets in other systems are very different from the planets in our own solar system, and that just because a planet is in a system's habitable zone doesn't mean that it is habitable.
Distant Worlds-Rebekah Dawson and giant gas planets
Astrophysicist Rebekah Dawson is especially interested in "hot Jupiters" like the one shown in this artist's conception. Like Jupiter in our solar system, these planets are gaseous, with no solid surface, and huge, some much larger than Jupiter. They also orbit very close to their stars, completing an orbit in just three to four days. Their temperature has been estimated to range from 2,200 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than molten lava.
Distant Worlds-Kepler-47 system
This illustration compares our own solar system to Kepler-47, a double-star system discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope. The habitable zone of each system, the area where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet, is shown as a green band. Kepler-47 includes two planets, one orbiting too close to its suns to be habitable. The other, named Kepler-47c, orbits well within the habitable zone, but is not likely to host life. It is thought to be a gas giant, with an atmosphere of thick water-vapor clouds and no solid surface.
