Profile: Angelle Tanner Since Angelle Tanner was a young girl
watching a PBS broadcast of Cosmos, the mysteries of the
universe have called her into a career as an astronomer. At MSU,
the assistant professor in physics and astronomy focuses heavily
on her research interests, searching for extra-solar planets and
learning about their solar systems. She also teaches
undergraduate and graduate level astronomy courses. Tanner and
her colleague Donna Pierce are the only two professional
research astronomers in Mississippi. Astronomy is an appealing
topic to many, including the average star-gazer who may enjoy
identifying constellations, spotting planets and observing
eclipses and other rare events. Tanner holds public viewings at
MSU's own telescope at Howell Observatory each semester. But
Tanner's research goes light years beyond simple star-gazing.
"It's a numbers game. We observe thousands of stars with
telescopes all over the world in order to get the numbers we
need to detect planets," she said. Planet findin