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Very fun event where UK school kids get to quiz scientists in real time. Crazy two weeks of intense chats!
There is a BBC article today, noting how a recent poll shows an increase in the number of people who don’t believe in climate change (what we used to call global warming). Apparently three months ago, 15% of people in the UK didn’t think climate change was taking place, now 25% think so. The conclusion is that recent events, a “series of high profile climate-related stories, some of which made grim reading for climate scientists and policymakers” has caused the change. However, 73% of folk aware of said news hadn’t let it change their minds, apparently “people tend to make judgements over time based on a whole range of different sources.”
So people can be swayed by news and change their minds on the existence or otherwise of global warming or otherwise in three months, yet at the same time get a feeling for what’s happening over longer timescales. Somewhat contradictory conclusions? Yet the results are obviously “very disturbing” and “action is urgently needed.” Action to educate that global warming is real that is.
Indeed, I agree more education would be great, and with that how about some education about critical thinking? While the surveyors note that it’s “very unusual indeed to see such a dramatic shift in opinion in such a short period,” they still take the results at face value, rather than wondering if perhaps the differences between the two surveys are an indication of their error due to some systematic effect. While there may have been some real change in the number of (landline owning) people (try running it monthly and looking at the scatter), I find this blind faith in the results being representative of the real world a bit hard to swallow.
I am currently at the IoA in Cambridge, UK. I work with many collaborators on various debris-disk like things, including the Herschel DEBRIS survey, the SCUBA-2 SONS survey, looking for warm dust with WISE and LBTI, theoretical aspects, etc. This page is a reasonably up to date astro-related CV.
Papers
2013
- The bright end of the exo-Zodi luminosity function: Disk evolution and implications for exo-Earth detectability, Kennedy & Wyatt, submitted
- Spatially Resolved Images of Dust Belt(s) Around the Planet-hosting Subgiant Kappa CrB, Bonsor, Kennedy et al 2013, MNRAS [ ADS | press ]
- Resolved debris disks around A stars in the Herschel DEBRIS survey, Booth, Kennedy et al 2013, MNRAS [ ADS | PDF ]
- Millimeter Emission Structure in the first ALMA Image of the AU Mic Debris Disk, MacGregor et al 2013, ApJL [ ADS | PDF ]
- Resolving the multi-component debris disk around gamma Doradus with Herschel, Broekhoven-Fiene, Matthews, Kennedy et al 2013, ApJ [ ADS | PDF ]
2012
- A DEBRIS Disk Around The Planet Hosting M-star GJ 581 Spatially Resolved with Herschel, Lestrade et al 2012 [ ADS | PDF | press ]
- Coplanar circumbinary debris disks, Kennedy et al 2012 [ ADS | PDF ]
- Confusion limited surveys: using WISE to quantify the rarity of warm dust around Kepler stars, Kennedy & Wyatt 2012 [ ADS | PDF ]
- Herschel imaging of 61 Vir: implications for the prevalence of debris in low-mass planetary systems, Wyatt, Kennedy et al 2012 [ ADS | PDF | press ]
- A peculiar class of debris disks from Herschel/DUNES – Steep spectral energy distributions, Ertel et al 2012 [ ADS | PDF ]
- 99 Herculis: Host to a circumbinary polar ring debris disk, Kennedy et al 2012 [ ADS | PDF ]
2011
- Searching for Saturn’s Dust Swarm: Limits on the size distribution of Irregular Satellites from km to micron sizes, Kennedy et. al. 2011 [ ADS | PDF ]
- Multi-Wavelength Modelling of the Beta Leo Debris Disc: 1, 2 or 3 planetesimal populations? Churcher et al 2011 [ ADS | PDF ]
- Planet Formation Around M-dwarfs: From Young Disks to Planets, Pascucci et al 2011, Cool Stars 16 Splinter Session [ ADS ]
- Collisional Evolution of Irregular Satellite Swarms: Detectable Dust around Solar System and Extrasolar Planets, Kennedy & Wyatt 2011 [ ADS | PDF ]
2010
- Resolving debris discs in the far-infrared: early highlights from the DEBRIS survey, Matthews et al 2010 [ ADS | PDF ]
- Are Debris Disks Self-Stirred? Kennedy & Wyatt 2010 [ ADS | PDF]
2009
2008
- Planet formation around stars of various masses: Hot super-Earths, Kennedy & Kenyon 2008 [ ADS | blog | PDF ]
- Planet formation around stars of various masses: The snow line and the frequency of gas giants, Kennedy & Kenyon 2008 [ ADS | blog | PDF ]
2007
- Planet formation around M Dwarfs: The moving snow line and super-Earths, Kennedy, Kenyon, & Bromley 2007 [ ADS | blog | PDF ]
2006
- Planet formation around low-mass stars: The moving snow line and super-Earths, Kennedy, Kenyon, & Bromley 2006 [ ADS | blog | PDF | press ]
Google Scholar will give you a rough h-index.
Observing programmes (as PI)
- Herschel imaging of a candidate warm debris disk, Herschel Director’s Discretionary Time, 2012
- Debris Disks as a Tracer of Star and Planet Formation in Binaries, Herschel OT2, 2011
- An Irregular Dust Cloud around Uranus, Herschel OT1, 2010
Observing programmes (as Co-I)
- Small SpiKeS, Spitzer IRAC pilot survey of one Kepler tile, PI: M. Werner, 2012
- LBTI exo-zodi key science team, 2012
- DEBRIS, PI: B. Matthews & J. Greaves, Herschel Key Programme, 2009
- SONS, PI: B. Matthews, SCUBA2 Legacy survey, 2012
- Imaging the Birth Ring of the AU Mic Debris Disk, PI: D. Wilner, ALMA Cycle 0, 2011
- Confirmation and characterisation of two debris disks around low-mass stars, PI: J-F Lestrade, Herschel OT2, 2011
- Debris Disks around Low-Mass Planet-Bearing Stars, PI: G. Bryden, Herschel OT2, 2011
- Debris Disks around Planet-Bearing Stars, PI: G. Bryden, Herschel OT1, 2010
- Search for a correlation between planets and debris discs around retired A stars, PI: A. Bonsor, Herschel OT1, 2010
- Testing Planetary Dynamics and Evolutionary History in the HR 8799 Planet/Disc System, PI: B. Matthews, Herschel OT1, 2010
Funding Awarded
- RAS Undergraduate Bursary for a summer student, March 2013
Talks
- Debris disks and planets, and vice versa, IoA, Cambridge, Feb 2013 [ slides ]
- Debris disks and their relation to planets, UNSW, Sydney, Dec 2012
- Debris disks and their relation to planets, Mt Stromlo, Australian Exoplanet Workshop, Dec 2012 [ slides ]
- Debris disks and their relation to planets, Mt Stromlo, Australian National University, Dec 2012
- Debris disks and their relation to planets, CAR, Uni of Hertfordshire, Nov 2012 [ slides ]
- Dust from Saturn’s Irregular Satellites, UK NAM, Mar 2011 [ pdf ]
- Irregular Satellite Swarms, Mt Stromlo, Feb 2011 [ pdf ]
- Evolution of Irregular Satellites, Cambridge DAMTP, Feb 2011
- Herschel DEBRIS Survey, RAS Early Impact of Herschel meeting, January 2011 [ pdf ]
- Theory of Disk Dispersal around M-Dwarfs, Invited review, August 2010, Cool Stars Splinter on M-Dwarf Planet Formation [ keynote | pdf ]
- IoA Theory Grant talks, August 2010
- IoA Star and Planet Formation group, March 2010
- INI Dynamics of Disks and Planets Final Workshop, Dec 2009
- IoA Theory Grant talks, Nov 2009
- Final talk at RSAA [ slides (main) (side) | blog ]
- Super-Earth talk at ASA 2008 [ slides | blog ]
- Mid-term review at RSAA [ slides ]
- Super-earth talk at the Fifth Stromlo Symposium [ slides ]
Posters
- A Circumbinary Polar-ring Debris Disk at Herschel’s View of Star and Planet Formation [ poster ]
- A Circumbinary Polar-ring Debris Disk at Signposts of Planet Formation Conference [ poster ]
- Are debris disks self-stirred? posters at Newton Institute workshops in Cambridge and Edinburgh late 2009 [ poster ]
- Gas giant frequency poster at ASA 2008 [ poster ]
- Gas giant frequency poster at Origins of Solar Systems Gordon Conference [ poster ]
- Super-earth poster at the Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Meeting [ poster ]
Refereeing
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)
- Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A)
- The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ)
- James Clerk Maxwell Telescope TAG
Teaching
- Supervising for Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics (third year course at University of Cambridge), 2013
- Graduate student lectures, Nov 2012, IoA [ slides ]
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My PhD involved thinking about how planet formation depends on the star the planets form around, and what we might learn as more planets orbiting a range of different stars are discovered. I worked with Scott Kenyon of Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA in the USA. This link has a copy of my thesis as submitted (no corrections), though the body is just the first four papers listed here outlined a bit more in blog posts, links below.
- Stellar mass dependent disk dispersal in the Astrophysical Journal in April 2009 (ApJ v695 p1210) [ ADS ]
- Planet formation around stars of various masses: Hot super-Earths in the Astrophysical Journal in August 2008 (ApJ v682 p1264) [ ADS | blog entry ]
- Planet formation around stars of various masses: The snow line and the frequency of gas giants appeared in the Astrophysical Journal in January 2008 (ApJ v673 p502) [ ADS | blog entry ]
- Planet formation around M Dwarfs: The moving snow line and super-Earths appeared in Astrophysics and Space Science in August 2007 (Ap&SS v311 p9) [ ADS | blog entry ] (this paper is basically a clearer version of the one below)
- Planet formation around low-mass stars: The moving snow line and super-Earths appeared in the Astrophysical Journal Letters in October 2006 (ApJL v650 p139) [ ADS | blog entry ]
So these people have found one can bounce oil when it’s poured into more oil. Pretty cool
(0)The junk I get… So apparently global warming is caused by the Solar sunspot cycle. For the last 20 years, oceans have been warming as atmospheric CO2 levels have increased. The end of the current Solar cycle means we’ll be experiencing the end of global warming soon. Yay!
Hang on though, how did global warming never get noticed before? The sunspot cycle has been going as long as we’ve been on Earth (the actual variation on irradiance is about 0.1, way too little to do anything anyway). Also, though the sunspot cycle is 22 years long, the sunspot activity goes on a 11 year cycle. Thus the ocean temperatures shouldn’t have increased continuously for the last 20 years…
Normally hot air rises, but light air does also, in the way that it escapes from the atmosphere more easily than things like nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. If we’re not more careful to conserve helium when we get it out of the ground in the future, our kids might miss out on the fun it brings when the party’s over and it’s time to talk funny. As a side effect, science will also suffer…
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