Women of Arecibo: Dr. Flaviane Venditti

This post is part of our ongoing Women of Arecibo series, which highlights the achievements and experiences of women who built their careers around the 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory, and the professional and personal impact of losing an instrument that was of utmost importance in their careers.

Dr. Venditti at Arecibo.

The following post features Dr. Flaviane Venditti who joined the Arecibo staff in May 2017 and is currently the group lead for planetary radar. She started her science career as an undergraduate in Physics/Astronomy at the University of Sao Paulo, where she was part of the Polarimetry Group working with optical polarimetric observations to study the interstellar medium at the National Laboratory for Astrophysics (LNA) in Brazil. Her interest in celestial mechanics and space missions led her to pursue a Master’s and PhD degree in Space Engineering at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Brazil, with a focus in astrodynamics. During her PhD she worked with orbital maneuvers around asteroids, developing a method to model the gravitational field of asteroids using Arecibo’s planetary radar data. She was a postdoctoral scientist for one year at the same institution, working on a methodology to study orbit perturbation around small bodies. After that, she moved to Canada for another postdoctoral appointment to work with the dynamics of asteroid deflection at McGill University. Her research interests include radar observations, orbital dynamics, asteroid modeling, and asteroid impact mitigation techniques.

One of the many reasons that brought her to Arecibo was the possibility to work with observations again and to be actively part of the planetary defense community, which is directly related to her previous projects. The planetary radar system at Arecibo was unique, and she feels privileged to support and be one of the few people in the world to have worked there.

Besides science, the Arecibo Observatory is also a place where she can express her love for animals by rescuing and taking care of the Arecibo space cats. You can follow them on Twitter @AreciboCats!

Tell us about your research/work with Arecibo.

The main goal of the planetary radar science group at Arecibo is to support NASA's planetary defense program with physical and dynamical characterization of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), also, less frequently, planets, comets, and main belts asteroids. We've observed up to 126 asteroids per year, with a total of more than 850 NEAs during the past decades, and provided precise measurements of their orbit. I particularly enjoy the last-minute observations of recently discovered objects because not much is known about them when they are first discovered by optical surveys. Even when we are not able to obtain high-resolution images, the radar astrometry we provide helps to refine their orbits. This way we know where those asteroids will be in the future, and if they pose any threat to Earth.

We have a lot of data from these past 57 years of operations, and there is still a lot to be done! We are actively working on archiving and analyzing data from all those years of observations. The information we can obtain about the properties of an asteroid not only provides scientific knowledge, but it can also help plan future space missions to small bodies.

My background is in astrodynamics, so besides observations, I also work with orbital dynamics around small bodies, analyzing the gravitational perturbation around small bodies due to their non-spherical shape, and dynamics of asteroid deflection techniques.


Tell us about the first time you saw Arecibo. How did you feel? What did you see?

Arecibo at sunset.

I had used Arecibo data in the past during my PhD, but I never had the chance to visit the Observatory until I started working here. Many well-known facilities and institutions we are used to seeing on the news, movies, etc. are not as exciting when you visit in person, but the Arecibo Observatory was different. The first time I saw the telescope I was completely amazed by that engineering wonder. The interesting thing is that during the past four years that I have been working at Arecibo, that wow feeling never went away. When we are just in the control room taking data or in our offices, we sometimes forget how magnificent the instrument we use is. But I loved to go running around the antenna during sunset, and even though I had been using the telescope for years, I frequently looked up and had that feeling of "I can't believe I use this telescope!" I also used to get some nice sunset pictures of the telescope. I never got bored of looking at it!

How did you become a radio astronomer/work at Arecibo?

During my Physics/Astronomy undergraduate course in Brazil I was a research intern in the Astronomy department of the University of Sao Paulo. During that time, I used to spend several nights per year at an observatory at 6,000 ft altitude. At the time it had nothing to do with planetary sciences, I was doing optical polarimetric observations of star clusters and studying light polarization in hot binary star systems. I loved doing observations, but I was also very interested in celestial mechanics and space missions, so I went to pursue a master's and PhD in space engineering. For my thesis, I used Arecibo's planetary radar data to study orbit perturbation and spacecraft orbital maneuvers around asteroids. I then moved to Canada for a postdoctoral appointment at McGill University, where I worked with the dynamics of asteroid deflection. My research was always tied to small bodies and planetary defense, but being able to work directly with observations was something I really missed doing. Working at Arecibo was a dream, and I'm glad I am able to be a part of Arecibo's history.

How did you feel when you heard/learned about the damage to the telescope?

At first, I think I was in denial, it didn't feel real. I had gone to the Observatory two days before the platform collapsed, and I don't think my brain understood right away what had just happened. It was only during a call with several Arecibo users and friends later that day, when they requested a minute of silence, that it finally hit me—the telescope was "gone". That was a very hard moment for me, it was as if I had just realized that someone I loved had died.

What does Arecibo mean to you?

I think the main word that always came to mind when I thought about Arecibo was 'dream'.

Dr. Venditti at Arecibo.

Where do you see yourself in Arecibo’s future?

We have been through many challenges in the past years. Hurricanes, earthquakes, management, and staff changes. I'm the type of person that will step up when help is needed if it's something I deeply believe in and cherish, so it never crossed my mind to leave during those difficult times. I know that the future of the Arecibo Observatory is cloudy, but I want to be sure that I do everything I can to support it while I can.

If you had unlimited money and someone asked you to do something with Arecibo, what would you do with the facility?

​The Arecibo Observatory was built after a dream of an innovative, and maybe a little crazy idea. Everything that was never done before might sound a bit crazy, but exciting. My desire would be to build a new instrument that could revolutionize science, with capabilities that current and planned facilities can't provide.