Carole Ann Haswell

Carole Ann Haswell is a British astrophysicist and current Professor of Astrophysics and Head of Astronomy at the Open University. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. She has been involved in the detection of several exoplanets, including Barnard's Star b.

Early life and education Haswell was born in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, North Yorkshire, and grew up in Dormanstown. Her father worked on an ammonia recovery plant at Imperial Chemical Industries.

She attended Huntcliff School where she worked towards her GCE Ordinary Levels. Since 2012 she has led the Dispersed Matter Planet Project, which involves the analysis of light from nearby stars to identify which host mass-losing planets.

In 2018 Haswell was part of the team that was first to identify a planet around Barnard's Star, the closest single (non-binary) star to Earth, a red dwarf star that is six light years away from Earth. Using the radial velocity method, the team discovered Barnard's Star b. At temperatures this high the atmosphere and surface levels of the planet can be lost, and the materials disperse into a thin sheet of gas. Haswell has proposed that these planets could be used to understand the geology of the rocky planets in Earth's solar system. CHEOPS, which features a 35 cm telescope, launched in December 2019. She regularly provides expert opinion to the national media and is involved with various outreach programmes through the International Astronomical Union. Haswell was awarded the Open University Outreach and Public Engagement Award for her work targeted at people with low science capital in Teesside.

Personal life Haswell has a daughter. She is interested in the stock market and has used her understanding of astrophysics to buy and sell stocks.

Publications Haswell's publications include: