Dr. Michael Blanton on Open Data, Galaxy Surveys, and the Future of Astronomy (EP 43)

About this episode

Dr. Michael Blanton discusses the evolution of open data in astronomy and future challenges in galaxy formation.

Hosted by Lester Nare and Krishna Choudhary, this episode is the second interview in our ongoing collaboration series with Carnegie Observatories. Krishna sits down with Dr. Michael Blanton, the new Director of the Carnegie Observatories, for a wide-ranging conversation on how astronomy became one of the most data-rich sciences, how the Sloan Digital Sky Survey helped change the culture around open data, what the next era of astronomical data science and AI could look like, and one of the galaxy mysteries Blanton still wants to solve: why the most massive galaxies in the universe stop forming stars.The conversation starts with Blanton’s Princeton roots and his work connected to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, then moves into the culture of public astronomical data, the NYU Value-Added Galaxy Catalog, Vera Rubin Observatory, Carnegie’s role in the future of astronomy, the Magellan telescopes, astronomical archives, MaNGA and eBOSS, galaxy formation, dark matter, and even the science behind the black hole visualizations in Interstellar.Audio note: this was one of our first out-of-studio interviews, and there are a few minor audio issues in parts of the conversation. We appreciate…

People in this episode

Hosts: Krishna Choudhary, Lester Nare

Guest: Dr. Michael Blanton

Topics covered

• open data
• galaxy surveys
• astronomy
• data science
• AI
• galaxy formation
• dark matter

Keywords

• astronomy
• open data
• galaxy surveys
• Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• data science
• AI
• dark matter
• galaxy formation
• black hole visualizations

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Carnegie Observatories, Princeton, Sloan Digital Sky Survey, NYU Value-Added Galaxy Catalog, Vera Rubin Observatory, Magellan telescopes, MaNGA, eBOSS, Interstellar

Places: Los Angeles, UCLA, Fowler Museum

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