Office:
D245 (Duane)
My research is in the area of developing new space instrumentation for astrophysics. I have worked in x-rays, ultraviolet and visible bands. Currently I am concentrating on Starshades, a concept I invented and have been developing for flight with the goal of performing spectroscopy on habitable planets around nearby stars. The goal is to search for biomarkers, moving forward the search for life in the Universe.
Selected Recent Publications:
Cash, W., “Detection of Earth-like planets around other stars using petal-shaped occulters”, Nature, 442, 51-53, (2006)
Cash, W., “Analytic Modeling of Starshades”, Ap. J., 738, 76, 13pp (2011)
Harness, A., Warwick, S., Shipley, A., Cash, W., “Ground-based Testing and Demonstrations of Starshades”, SPIE 9904, 13pp (2016)