Joachim Trümper

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Joachim Ernst Trümper (born May 27, 1933 in Haldensleben ) is a German astrophysicist.

Life

Trümper graduated from high school in Bernburg (Saale) and studied physics in Halle (Saale) , Hamburg and Kiel . In 1959, he was with a work on cosmic radiation in nuclear physics at the University of Kiel doctorate . In 1966 he completed his habilitation in Kiel with a paper on cosmic rays.

After a time as a guest lecturer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching and as a professor in Kiel, he was full professor and director of the Astronomical Institute at the University of Tübingen from 1971 to 1975 .

From 1975 to 2001 he was director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and honorary professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .

Act

In his dissertation (1956–59) Joachim Trümper developed an early version of the spark chamber and then turned to measurements of cosmic rays . Under his direction, the Kiel air shower experiment was set up from 1961 and used from 1965 to 1971 for measurements in the energy range 10 14 –10 17 eV. The scientific work from this time focused primarily on the energy spectrum and the chemical composition of cosmic rays.

After the discovery of pulsars (1967) Trümper worked on models for pulsar radiation and developed plans for X-ray astronomy . After his appointment at the University of Tübingen , he began to set up X-ray astronomy in Germany and initiated a balloon program to investigate X-ray sources in the energy range (20–200 keV) that had recently been discovered by Uhuru (2–6 keV). After his appointment as director at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Garching, this program was continued together with the Tübingen Astronomical Institute. The highlights were the discovery of cyclotron resonance in the spectrum of Hercules X-1 , with which the gigantic magnetic field of a neutron star (4 × 10 8 Tesla) was measured for the first time , and a precision measurement of the spectrum of the black hole Cygnus X-1 , which allowed conclusions to be drawn about the radiation mechanism.

The measurements in the hard X-ray range were continued from 1987 to 2001 on the Soviet space station MIR , including the discovery of hard X-rays from the 1987A supernova . This is caused by Comptonization of the gamma radiation emitted when radionuclides (especially Ni 60 / Co 60 ) decay .

In the years 1983-86 the X-ray group of the MPE actively used the X-ray satellite EXOSAT of ESRO / ESA , in whose mission definition group Trümper had been active since 1971. Many observations were made with EXOSAT, especially on compact galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources. Joachim Trümper's scientific contributions from this phase are set out in around 40 publications from 1984 to 1989.

Trümper's working group has been developing imaging telescopes for X-ray astronomy since 1972, which were tested on various rocket flights between 1977 and 1987. In 1975 Trümper proposed the construction of a satellite to the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology , which should be equipped with a large X-ray telescope. NASA and the British SERC also took part in this initially national project, which was given the name ROSAT (ROentgenSATellit), from 1982/83 . The plan to launch ROSAT with the space shuttle was abandoned after the Challenger disaster in 1986 in favor of a rocket launch, which took place on June 1, 1990 with a Thor Delta II from Cape Canaveral .

With ROSAT, the first complete sky survey was carried out with an X-ray telescope, increasing the number of known sources from 840 to 125,000 compared to the HEAO-1 survey . In the subsequent observation program 1991–1998, around 8,000 individual observations were carried out, which provided thousands of astrophysicists with a wealth of new knowledge about astrophysical objects and processes.

The scientific ROSAT activities under the direction of Trümper dealt primarily with the magnetospheric and photospheric X-ray emission of pulsars and cooling neutron stars. With ROSAT it was possible for the first time to measure the purely thermal emission from the hot photosphere of individual, cooling neutron stars. Trümper was also involved in work on supernova remnants, galaxy clusters , quasars and the cosmic X-ray background radiation as well as in the discovery of the X-ray emission of comets . One of the highlights was the discovery of the super-soft X-ray sources, which turned out to be white dwarfs in binary star systems with thermonuclear burning on the surface.

Following ROSAT, Trümper took part in measurements with the X-ray observatories Chandra of NASA and XMM-Newton of ESA, to the development and instrumentation of which his working group has made a significant contribution since the mid-1980s. Together with a Dutch group, a transmission grating spectrometer was developed for Chandra, as well as three X-ray mirror systems and a new type of X-ray CCD camera for XMM-Newton.

The PANTER X-ray test system, which was built primarily for ROSAT in 1981, played a decisive role in the implementation of the MPE's X-ray projects. It has also been used for telescope testing and calibration on other X-ray projects including EXOSAT , BeppoSAX , Chandra , XMM-Newton, and Swift . The MPI Semiconductor Laboratory , which was founded in 1992 together with the Max Planck Institute for Physics , where innovative X-ray pnCCDs for XMM Newtons were developed and built, has a similar key role . Developments for the X-ray missions of the future, eROSITA and Athena, are currently underway in both institutions .

Trümper has been working at the MPE as emeritus since 2001. His list of publications shows a total of 706 titles ( ADS , as of 2013), which have been cited more than 18,000 times. He was or is co-author or editor of eight books and a number of scientific journals.

He is a member of numerous scientific associations, including since 1979 in the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors eV and since 1988 in the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , where he was a member of the Senate from 2003 to 2006. From 1986 to 1988 he was President and from 1988 to 1990 Vice President of the German Physical Society .

In 1989 he was a founding member of the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea in Salzburg. He belongs to the Academia Europaea and has been a full member of the math and science class of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences since 1997 . In 2003 he was elected a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and in 2013 a corresponding member of the International Foundation for High Alpine Research Stations Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat.

He also worked in committees of the BMBF , DARA , MPG , DFG , DLR , DPG , EPS , IUPAP , COSPAR , KFK , ESA and NASA .

honors and awards

Fonts

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Member entry by Prof. Dr. Joachim Trümper at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on July 22, 2016.
  2. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Joachim Trümper. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 28, 2015 .