Feature
David Kipping seeks new and unexpected worlds
He became “the moon guy” by deciding that no idea is too crazy
OPEN MIND David Kipping has made a name for himself by taking risks and accepting failure.
Emily Kipping
David Kipping, 33
Astronomer
Columbia University
By early next spring, astronomer David Kipping hopes to know if the object he’s spent his early career searching for is really there.
An astronomer at Columbia University, Kipping is perhaps most known for a project sifting through data from the Kepler space telescope on more than a thousand planets orbiting distant stars. But he’s more interested in their moons. A moon could be a home to alien life even if its planet is inhospitable (SN: 2/9/13, p. 5). A moon could also make its host planet more likely to harbor life. Some models
