Jan van Paradijs
Jan van Paradijs (born June 9, 1946 in Haarlem ; † November 2, 1999 in Amsterdam ) was a Dutch astrophysicist , known for the first discovery of the optical afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (February 28, 1997). He was one of the leading experts in high energy astronomy.
His discovery of the optical afterglow of GRB 970228 (GRB for Gamma Ray Burst) enabled the clarification of the long open question of the nature of the GRB, in particular they showed that the observed GRB came from a galaxy far away.
Van Paradijs was the oldest of seven children of a bricklayer. Thanks to the intercession of his headmaster, he attended the high school in Haarlem and from 1963 studied mathematics, physics and astronomy at the University of Amsterdam . In 1966 he received his candidate degree and in 1970 his diploma. He also played semi-professional basketball. In 1975 he received his doctorate from David Koelbloed on the chemical composition of cool giant stars, where he showed in 1972 that the microturbulence observed in the spectrum corresponded to real hydrodynamic turbulence. He demonstrated this using the change in turbulence during the pulsation phase in a Cepheid . After completing his doctorate, he dealt with X-ray binary stars and neutron stars. From 1977 to 1979 he was a post-doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , where he dealt with X-ray bursts and began a long-term collaboration with Walter Lewin . X-ray bursts and their accompanying optical transients remained his research area. In 1988 he became a professor at the University of Amsterdam.
In 1997, shortly after the observation of afterglow in the X-ray range using the BeppoSAX satellite, he succeeded in observing afterglow in the optical range for the first time (with his students Paul Groot, Titus Galama).
His last work in 1999 concerned the connection between GRB and supernovae, where several of his students did pioneering work (Galama, Vreeswijk with a simultaneous observation of an SN and a GRB in 1998).
He was married to the Greek astrophysicist Chryssa Kouveliotou at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville since 1992 and has been a part-time professor at the University of Alabama since 1993 . He was co-author of a paper by Kouveliotou from 1998 in which she discovered magnetars (neutron stars with very high magnetic fields). From his first marriage he had a son and a daughter.
Awards
- 1998 Bruno Rossi Prize
- 1999 Name giver for the asteroid (9259) Janvanparadijs
Web links
- Publications by J. van Paradijs in the Astrophysics Data System
- Obituaries for J. van Paradijs in the Astrophysics Data System
- Obituary at the AAS by Ed van den Heuvel
Individual evidence
- ^ Van Paradijs, Groot, Koveioutou, Filippo Frontera and others. a. Transient optical emission from the error box of the γ-ray burst of February 28, 1997 , Nature, Volume 386, 1997, p. 686, abstract
- ^ Walter Lewin, My quarter century with Jan
- ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 36947
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Paradijs, Jan van |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch astrophysicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 9, 1946 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Haarlem |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 2, 1999 |
| Place of death | Amsterdam |