Through the Telescope: An Interview with a Galactic Expert

This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Tom Statler is an expert on galaxies as well as solar system dynamics, especially near-Earth asteroids, which he recently discussed in a chat session with The Washington Post.

He has made use of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory in space, and ground-based telescopes ranging from the 6.5-meter MMT observatory's telescopes down to the 4-inch reflector his older brother got for Christmas when they were kids. For five years he wrote a regular astronomy column for the Columbus Dispatch newspaper, and has done numerous radio shows on astronomy. Thousands of astronomers, including Statler, are attending the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society January 8-12, 2012.

Name: Tom Statler Age: 50 Institution: National Science Foundation/Ohio University Field of Study: Solar System dynamics

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