Her optics laboratory is the birthplace of a number of new astronomical instruments designed to tackle the problem of directly seeing and taking spectra of nearby solar systems with exoplanets and studying their composition, with the ultimate goal of finding life outside the solar system.
[4] She holds three patents, is the co-discoverer of the first brown dwarf, Gliese 229B,[5][6] and is active in research on exoplanets.
[11] Oppenheimer also works on ultracool white dwarfs,[12] the end states of 99% of stars, including the Sun, their role in comprising the baryonic dark matter,[13] as well as coronagraphy, the art of seeing faint celestial objects next to bright ones.
[18] Oppenheimer's education-related efforts at the AMNH include curating the AstroBulletin series of news items and bi-annual documentaries.
She co-curated the space show Journey to the Stars and curated the exhibit Searching for New Worlds.