Mathematician Helps Scientists' Efforts to Observe New Worlds

  • Published
  • AFOSR
ARLINGTON, Va. --  Dr. Oscar Bruno, an AFRL-funded mathematician, is applying his methodologies to a project aimed at discovering new planets. Dr. Oscar Bruno researches numerical methods and develops the resulting software that predicts the interaction of electromagnetic waves, such as radar and light, with structures of interest to the Air Force. AFRL funded his research as a small business owner through the Department of Defense Small Business Technology Transfer program and as a research scientist at the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Bruno is currently researching the effect of radar waves hitting the surface of an aircraft, causing it to act like a radiating antenna. In some cases, this may be a desirable effect and in others, it may not. The software predicts radiation patterns based on the shape and composition of an aircraft, allowing researchers to rule out variations that produce unwanted results. There is a significant value to software being able to produce such predictions because without it researchers would have to make a range of geometric shapes through expensive and slow experimental trial and error.

Northrop Grumman Space Technology (NGST) contracted with Dr. Bruno for a company-funded project called, "New Worlds Observer." NGST researchers investigate placing a flat, 50 m structure called a starshade between a space telescope and a star. The structure blocks all visible light from the star, allowing the extremely dim light coming from a planet in the vicinity to be viewed instead. 

Dr. Bruno and his graduate student, David Hoch, developed a code with 16-digit accuracy that works in 70 sec and can run on an ordinary desktop computer. They continue to work on the simulation tool and expect to deliver a complete code early next year. 

The benefit is that it would allow scientists to map and catalogue planetary systems around nearby stars, ranging from those with "warm, close-in orbits around parent stars" similar to Earth and Venus, to frozen, giant planets at the edges of distant solar systems.