Susan Lederer, a former associate professor of physics at Cal State San Bernardino, was part of the team of scientists using the TRAPPIST telescope that discovered a system of Earth-like planets some 40-light years away.
She was interviewed by Houston television station KHOU on Feb. 25 to discuss the discovery of the exoplanets, which was published in the journal Nature and announced at a news conference on Feb. 22 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope.
Lederer was a member of the CSUSB physics department from 2003-2010. She spent two months as a professor at the Vatican Observatory Summer School before joining NASA in July 2010.
She currently is the lead scientist for optical measurements in the Orbital Debris Program Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Watch the video of the interview at “NASA finds seven Earth-sized planets.”
For more on the NASA announcement, go to “NASA telescope reveals largest batch of Earth-size, habitable-zone planets around single star.”