Sarah Hörst

Sarah Hörst
Alma mater

University of Arizona

California Institute of Technology
Scientific career
Institutions

Johns Hopkins University

University of Colorado at Boulder
Thesis Post-Cassini Investigations of Titan Atmospheric Chemistry

Sarah Hörst is an Assistant Professor of Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University who focuses on understanding planetary atmospheric hazes, in particular the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon, Titan.

Education

Hörst attended high school in Gainesville, Florida.[1] Her mother is a neuroscientist and her father was a medical doctor.[2] She received a Bachelors in Planetary Science and Literature from the California Institute of Technology.[3] At Caltech she worked with Michael Brown (physicist) studying Europa and Titan using the Celestron telescope.[3] Whilst the telescope has been described as "amateur", Hörst managed to image Titan and calculate the lightcurve.[4] She was on the Caltech track team.[3] After graduating in 2004, Hörst joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and worked on the image analysis for the Imaging Science Subsystem of the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft.[5] She also worked at Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG).[6] She earned her PhD, "Post-Cassini Investigations of Titan Atmospheric Chemistry", in 2011 from the University of Arizona.[7] Here she worked in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory studying the chemistry of Titan's atmosphere. Her team was the first to distinguish the organic molecules in Titan's atmosphere; which included amino acids and nucleotide bases.[8] She was awarded the Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences.[2]

Research

Hörst moved to the University of Colorado Boulder as a National Science Foundation Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow in 2011.[9] In 2016, Hörst joined Johns Hopkins University[10] as an Assistant Professor. Specializing in the atmospheric chemistry of planets and their moons,[11] she has identified methane in the Lakes of Titan.[12][13]

In March 2018 Hörst's group demonstrated that they could simulate the atmosphere of alien worlds inside the laboratory, allowing them to analyse the composition of their haze.[14] The study will aid in the analysis of data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope, which NASA expect to launch in 2021.[15]

Her work has appeared in Smithsonian (magazine) as well as on SciShow and the BBC News.[16][17][18][19][20] She works with primary and secondary school teachers to enable them to use planetary science in their classroom.[21]

References

  1. ↑ "Sarah M. Hörst". www.sarahhorst.com. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  2. 1 2 "Sarah Horst to receive Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences". DRI Desert Research Institute. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  3. 1 2 3 "Old Caltech Telescope Yields New Science | Caltech". The California Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  4. ↑ 1969-, Lorenz, Ralph, (2010). Titan unveiled : Saturn's mysterious moon explored. Mitton, Jacqueline. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press. p. 52. ISBN 9780691146331. OCLC 703593875.
  5. ↑ "Sarah M. Hörst". sarahhorst.com. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  6. ↑ Cyril, Szopa,; Nathalie, Carrasco,; Ella, Sciamma-O,; Guy, Cernogora,; Edith, Hadamcik,; Veronique, Vuitton,; Roland, Thissen,; Jean-Yves, Bonnet,; Eric, Quirico, (2010). "Titan's aerosols modes of production and properties, as seen with the PAMPRE laboratory experiment". 38. Bibcode:2010cosp...38..565S.
  7. ↑ M., Horst, Sarah (2011). "Post-Cassini Investigations of Titan Atmospheric Chemistry".
  8. ↑ "Titan's Haze May Hold Ingredients for Life". UANews. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  9. ↑ "Sarah Horst | NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows". aapf-fellows.org. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  10. ↑ "Dr. Sarah Hörst of Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences Joins HEMI Faculty -". Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  11. ↑ "NASA Astrobiology Institute". nai.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  12. ↑ Hörst, Sarah M. (2017). "Titan's methane lakes". Nature Astronomy. 1 (9): 573–573. doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0244-8. ISSN 2397-3366.
  13. ↑ Futura. "Atmosphère de Titan : une molécule prébiotique découverte". Futura (in French). Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  14. ↑ "Johns Hopkins University Researchers Recreate Exoplanet Atmospheric Chemistry In The Lab". DoonWire. 2018-03-10. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  15. ↑ Hörst, Sarah M.; He, Chao; Lewis, Nikole K.; Kempton, Eliza M.-R.; Marley, Mark S.; Morley, Caroline V.; Moses, Julianne I.; Valenti, Jeff A.; Vuitton, Véronique (2018). "Haze production rates in super-Earth and mini-Neptune atmosphere experiments". Nature Astronomy. 2 (4): 303–306. doi:10.1038/s41550-018-0397-0. ISSN 2397-3366.
  16. ↑ Daley, Jason. "Purple Haze: Alien Atmospheres Recreated In the Lab". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  17. ↑ SciShow Space (2018-03-16), We Found Superconductors in Meteorites!, retrieved 2018-04-05
  18. ↑ "The Space Special, Science in Action - BBC World Service". BBC. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  19. ↑ Halton, Mary (2018-03-09). "Alien atmospheres recreated on Earth". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  20. ↑ Loffhagen, Matthew. "Scientists Have Recreated Alien Environments Here on Earth". Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  21. ↑ "TITANic Moons and Planets: Sarah Hörst hosts Saturn Week on Real Scientists". Real Scientists. 2017-09-10. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
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