Maura Shapiro

Maura Shapiro

Science Communication

Space captured my imagination early on, during regular visits to the Air and Space Museums near my home outside Washington, D.C., stargazing on annual trips to the mountains, and astronomy lessons in school. But it wasn’t until I read about the Drake Equation (the theoretical equation to calculate the number of communicating civilizations in the Milky Way) that I realized I wanted to be an astronomer.

At university, I contributed to the search for extraterrestrial life by participating in exoplanet discovery research. In addition to finding planets outside our solar system, I found my true passion: sharing my love for physics and astronomy with others. Through my work as a science communicator, I seek to celebrate stories of people from underrepresented groups in physics to promote a more diverse, equitable field.

At Kielder Observatory, I cherish our gorgeous dark skies and love engaging guests in stargazing and nerding out about the universe.

Favorite Astronomical Figure: Vera Rubin. She discovered dark matter by observing how the outskirts of galaxies were spinning faster than expected. She concluded that there must be missing mass – stuff we couldn’t see with our telescopes – to explain this phenomenon. Now we know that dark matter influences the universe’s evolution, galaxy formation, and makes up about 27% of the matter in the universe, but we still don’t know exactly what it is or why it doesn’t interact with light.

Favorite Exoplanet: PSR J2322-2650b. This gas giant orbits so close to a pulsar that the star’s gravity is squishing it into a lemon shape. But potentially the best bit is that the molecular carbon in its atmosphere could make it rain diamonds!

Favorite Constellation: Taurus. Unlike most constellations, which require a lot of imagination, I think it really looks like what it is — a bull charging toward us. I love the evil, red eye Aldebaran and, of course, the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus’s heart.