Contributors

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos introduced Marc Kuchner to astronomy. He got his first real taste while working a summer job in the astronomy department at Harvard University, where he majored in physics. In graduate school at Caltech Kuchner encountered the “crazy” first discoveries of exoplanets, planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, whose existence at the time was hotly debated. So enamored with the subject that he would have taken “any project to get involved,” Kuchner asked Michael Brown, later famous for helping to downgrade Pluto’s planet status, to advise him. Although offered some “crummy” exoplanet data to analyze, Kuchner responded, “I don’t care—I’ll take it!” He still researches exoplanets, including Earth-like planets capable of supporting life, “or at least bacteria.” But exoplanets aren’t Kuchner’s only passion. He’s also a songwriter, and has traveled to Nashville for 15 years to write, record, and sell his country music songs. Working in the ...