Weekly Space Hangout: November 13, 2019 – Dr. Rory Barnes talks VPLanet

Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)

Sondy Springmann (@sondy)

Carolyn Collins Petersen (TheSpaceWriter.com / @spacewriter)

Veranika Klimovich ( @VeronikaSpace)

This week we welcome Dr. Rory Barnes to the Weekly Space Hangout. Rory is an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington. He is also a member of NASA’s Virtual Planetary Lab as well as the University of Washington’s Big Data program. He studies the habitability of exoplanets with astrophysical, geophysical, and atmospheric computer models.

In August 2019, Rory released VPLanet, an open source, virtual planet simulator that links physical processes together and enables phenomena from one region of a planetary system to be tracked throughout its entire system. Eventually, it is hoped that this will help determine if an exoplanet is capable of supporting life.

VPLanet currently includes two modules which model the internal and magnetic evolution of terrestrial planets’ characteristics. However, being open source and designed for easy growth, researchers are able to write additional physical modules which can be easily integrated with VPLanet in essentially a “plug and play” manner.

To learn more about Rory, his research, and other projects, visit: https://faculty.washington.edu/rkb9/

To learn about the other programs and scripts Rory has written, visit: https://github.com/RoryBarnes

To read all about VPLanet, visit https://phys.org/news/2019-09-vplanet-virtual-planet-simulator-distant.html

The source code for VPLanet is available on GitHub: https://github.com/VirtualPlanetaryLaboratory/vplanet

Announcements:

The Weekly Space Hangout is a production of CosmoQuest.

Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are specific ways you can help:

If you would like to join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew, visit their site here and sign up. They’re a great team who can help you join our online discussions!

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Wednesday at 5:00 pm Pacific / 8:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Universe Today, or the Weekly Space Hangout YouTube page – Please subscribe!

Weekly Space Hangout: April 25, 2018: Carolyn Collins Petersen discusses “Space Exploration: Past, Present, Future”

Hosts:
Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain)
Dr. Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter)
Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier )
Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org)

Special Guests:
Carolyn Collins Petersen is no stranger to the Weekly Space Hangout, having been a regular journalist during previous seasons. We are excited to welcome Carolyn back to the show this week, this time as our Special Guest, to discuss her newest book, Space Exploration: Past, Present, Future, which was released in the US on April 1. In it, Carolyn discusses the earliest space pioneers and their work, the WW1 technological advances which formed the basis of today’s Space Age, the increasing corporate interest in space, and theorizes about what the future may hold.

You can learn more about/order Carolyn’s latest book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Space-Exploration-Past-Present-Future/dp/1445656035

Announcements:
If you would like to join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew, visit their site here and sign up. They’re a great team who can help you join our online discussions!

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Wednesday at 5:00 pm Pacific / 8:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Universe Today, or the Weekly Space Hangout YouTube page – Please subscribe!