astronomy

Michael H. Hecht

Michael H. Hecht 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 Michael H. Hecht rather than just read about it. In short: Michael H. Hecht is a research scientist, associate director for research management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory, and former deputy project director of the Event Horizon Telescope.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Michael H. Hecht is a research scientist, associate director for research management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory, and former deputy project director of the Event Horizon Telescope. He served as lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer instrument on the Phoenix Mars lander, and as principal investigator for the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) instrument on the Mars 2020 rover.

Career Hecht obtained an A.B. in Physics from Princeton University, an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1982. Hecht joined the staff of California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1982, where he researched microelectromechanical systems, surface and interface science, scientific instrument development, and planetary science. He co-invented the Ballistic Electron Emission Microscopy system and published several highly-cited papers on metal-semiconductor interfaces, for which he received the newly-renamed Lew Allen Award for Excellence in 1990. At JPL, as the supervisor of the Microdevices Laboratory's In-Situ Exploration Technology Group, he developed the concept for the Deep Space 2 micro-landers, which flew to Mars in 1999. He was later named the project manager, co-investigator, and project scientist for the Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment (MECA) instrument for the cancelled Mars Surveyor 2001 mission. The MECA instrument was later flown as the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer on the Phoenix mission to Mars in 2007, with Hecht as lead scientist and co-investigator, and was instrumental in the discovery of perchlorate in Martian soil. Based on that work, Hecht published highly-cited papers on the chemistry of Martian soil and the existence of water on Mars, and was awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 2010. After almost 30 years at JPL, Hecht was appointed as an associate director of MIT's Haystack Observatory. In 2014, the MOXIE instrument, for which Hecht is the principal investigator, was selected as one of the instruments on the Perseverance rover for the Mars 2020 mission. In 2019, Hecht was one of the scientists awarded the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his work with the Event Horizon Telescope to produce the first image of a supermassive black hole.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael H. Hecht

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael H. Hecht 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 Michael H. Hecht 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 Michael H. Hecht 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 Michael H. Hecht

In research: Michael H. Hecht 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 Michael H. Hecht 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: Michael H. Hecht is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American physicists, American planetary scientists, Jet Propulsion Laboratory faculty, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael H. Hecht 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 Michael H. Hecht in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael H. Hecht 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 Michael H. Hecht out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael H. Hecht in simple terms?

Why does Michael H. Hecht 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 Michael H. Hecht?

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 Michael H. Hecht.