Jason Steffen

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Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy

Expertise: Astronomy, Exoplanets, Cosmology, Dark matter and energy, Gravitation, General physics

Biography

Jason Steffen works in the field of exoplanets — planets that orbit distant stars. He has been a member of the science team for NASA's Kepler mission. He continues to analyze data from that mission to understand the properties of planets and planetary systems. He also worked on projects related to dark matter, dark energy, and gravity.

Steffen is originally from Utah and attended graduate school in Seattle. Before coming to UNLV, he was the Lindheimer Fellow at Northwestern University and the Brinson Fellow at Fermilab outside of Chicago.

In addition to his work in astrophysics, he is known for the Steffen Method, a procedure to efficiently board passengers on an airplane.

Education

Ph.D. in Physics, University of Washington, Seattle
B.S. in Physics and Mathematic, Weber State University

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Jason Steffen In The News

NASA spotted a big asteroid that may hit Earth — what you should know

It's actually good news that NASA spotted a sizable asteroid with a (small) chance of hitting Earth in 2032. It means our asteroid-sleuthing telescopes are working.

Kepler’s voyage from Earth to countless new worlds

Nature

In Hidden in the Heavens, Jason Steffen tells the tale of the Kepler mission: from its conception in the early 1980s, through its long road to approval in 2001, to the drama of its launch in 2009, to its bounty of early science results, to its heartbreaking demise in 2014, to its miraculous second life as the K2 mission through 2018. During its lifetime, Kepler detected some 5,000 planets. Those of us who worked on it were blessed to be part of a revolution in astronomy. The book is, at turns, a popular science survey of exoplanet discovery, an oral history of the Kepler mission, and Steffen’s own personal memoir.

American Airlines ' new rule for traveling

CDN

The process of boarding an airplane,often perceived as a simple routine, has been the subject of study and discussion for years. Airlines, always looking to optimize their operations and improve the passenger experience, have explored different strategies to streamline this process. In this context, American Airlines, one of the world's leading airlines, took a step forward by implementing an innovative boarding system, designed to transform the way travelers begin their journey.

The quest to find planets outside of our solar system

Are We There Yet?

In 2006, NASA and its partners launched the Kepler telescope with a goal to try and identify planets in other solar systems. Since then, the telescope found over 2,700 planets orbiting different suns and existing in different solar systems before its retirement in 2018.