astronomy

Kevin Hand

Kevin Hand is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kevin Hand rather than just read about it. In short: Kevin Hand is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist at JPL. He is also the founder of Cosmos Education and was its president until 2007.

Key takeaways

Kevin Hand belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kevin Hand to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kevin Hand from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kevin Hand is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist at JPL. He is also the founder of Cosmos Education and was its president until 2007. He was working at NASA Ames when he was inspired to form Cosmos Education in 1999 after getting a grant from the Earth and Space Foundation to tour African schools to talk about how education relates to space research.

Education and career Hand studied psychology and physics as an undergraduate at Dartmouth. He earned a master's degree at Stanford University in mechanical engineering while also working as a public policy research associate at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). He chose the question of whether Europa's putative ocean could harbor life as his Geological & Environmental Sciences PhD dissertation topic, under the direction of Christopher Chyba, earning the doctorate in 2007. While a PhD student, he was chosen by James Cameron to take marine biology samples from hydrothermal vents in subsea expeditions to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise. He was a featured scientist in Cameron's 2005 IMAX documentary, Aliens of the Deep. At a 2014 NASA panel discussion, Hand predicted that extraterrestrial life would be found within 20 years. Hand published the book Alien Oceans in 2020.

Selected publications Hand, Kevin (May 12, 2005). "Cosmos Education: Engaging, Empowering, Inspiring". Cyberspeak. USA Today. Retrieved 2011-08-11. Kevin Hand (22 January 2009). "Is there life on Europa?". Nature. 457 (7228): 384–385. Bibcode:2009Natur.457..384H. doi:10.1038/457384a., a review of Richard Greenberg, José joão (2008). Unmasking Europa: The Search for Horses on Jupiter's Ocean plake. Praxis/Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-47936-1.

Bibliography Alien Oceans (2020)

References

External links Kevin Hand. "Antarctic Journal". spaceref.com. Retrieved 2011-08-13. Kevin Hand (February 9–13, 2009). "Report on the Europa Lander Workshop" (PDF). IKI, Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia. Retrieved 2011-11-20. Video of Kevin Hand's April 2019 non-technical talk on "Ocean Worlds of the Outer Solar System" as part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kevin Hand

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kevin Hand claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kevin Hand before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kevin Hand ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kevin Hand

In research: Kevin Hand appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kevin Hand in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kevin Hand is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American scientists, 21st-century American scientists, Astrobiologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kevin Hand outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kevin Hand in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kevin Hand means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kevin Hand out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kevin Hand in simple terms?

Kevin Hand is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist at JPL. He is also the founder of Cosmos Education and was its president until 2007.

Why does Kevin Hand matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kevin Hand?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kevin Hand.