Other

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

Migrated podcast image for: Outlook

Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Outlook: The space genius who needed a guide to life on earth

Magazines & Reviews

Sara Seager

19/10/2020 GMT

The space genius who needed a guide to life on earth

BBC World Service - Outlook, The space genius who needed a guide to life on earth

How a bereaved astrophysicist was helped by notes from her late husband

How a bereaved astrophysicist was helped by three pages of instructions from her late husband, as she adjusted to the new world around her.

Sara Seager is an MIT astrophysicist. She has made it her life’s work to peer into the spaces around stars – looking for exoplanets outside our solar system, hoping to find the one-in-a-billion world that is enough like ours to sustain life. But after the unexpected death of her husband, Sara struggled with some of the new day-to-day tasks that she had to take on. She tells Jo Fidgen the story of how a three-page guide written by her late husband helped her to navigate life on earth, while she continued making ground-breaking discoveries in the skies.

Wanda Díaz-Merced is an astrophysicist from Puerto Rico. Unlike most people in her field Wanda is blind, but she has found a way to collect and study data from the stars and space. She uses a technique called sonification which changes visual data into sound waves, allowing her to hear the sounds of the stars.


Picture: Sara Seager
Credit: Justin Knight

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Outlook

The space genius who needed a guide to life on earth

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

About BBC World Service