Aleksander Wolszczan

Aleksander Wolszczan 2007

Aleksander Wolszczan ( listen ^?^/^I ) (born April 29, 1946 in Szczecinek , Poland ) is a Polish astronomer . He is the discoverer of the first exoplanets or pulsar planets.

biography

Wolszczan grew up in Szczecin (and is now an honorary citizen of the city). He studied at the University of Toruń and then worked there as a research assistant. He received his doctorate in 1975 and moved to the USA in 1982 to work at Cornell University in Ithaca , New York and Princeton University . Since 1994 he has been a professor at the University of Toruń and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences .

Together with Dale Frail , he made astronomical observations from the Arecibo Observatory , which led to the discovery of the pulsar PSR B1257 + 12 in 1990 . The data analysis of the discovery showed that the pulsar is orbited by two planets with at least 3.4 and 2.8 Earth masses. The orbits are 0.36 and 0.47 astronomical units . This planetary system was the first other than the solar system to be detected in the universe.

Wolszczan and Frail published their results in 1992 and 1994. Although there was much criticism of the publication in the beginning, it is now widely recognized.

In 1996, Wolszczan received the American Astronomical Society's Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize, and in 2002 his picture was featured on a Polish postage stamp . In 2001 he received the Marian Smoluchowski Medal .

In 2003 Maciej Konacki and Wolszczan determined the orbital inclination of the two planets and thus showed that their masses are around 3.9 and 4.3 Earth masses.

Web links

Commons : Aleksander Wolszczan - collection of images, videos and audio files

A. Wolszczan, DA Frail: A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR 1257 + 12. In: Nature. Volume 355, No. 6356, January 9, 1992, pp. 145-147.
A. Wolszczan: Confirmation of Earth-mass planets orbiting the millisecond pulsar PSR B1257 + 12. In: Science. Volume 264, No. 5158, April 22, 1994, pp. 538-542.
M. Konacki, A. Wolszczan: Masses and Orbital Inclinations of Planets in the PSR B1257 + 12 System. In: Astrophysical Journal. Volume 591, Issue 2, 2003, pp. L147-L150. bibcode : 2003ApJ ... 591L.147K
Earth Sized Planets Confirmed ( Memento June 5, 2003 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

↑ Wolszczan Featured on Millennium Stamp Set with Pope John Paul, Lech Walesa, and Nicolaus Copernicus. Science.psu.edu, February 18, 2002, accessed February 15, 2015 .

personal data
SURNAME	Wolszczan, Aleksander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Polish astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 29, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH	Szczecinek , Poland

[1] Wolszczan Featured on Millennium Stamp Set with Pope John Paul, Lech Walesa, and Nicolaus Copernicus. Science.psu.edu, February 18, 2002, accessed February 15, 2015 .