Kenneth C. Freeman

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Kenneth Charles "Ken" Freeman (born August 27, 1940 in Perth ) is an Australian astronomer.

Freeman studied mathematics and physics at the University of Western Australia with a bachelor's degree in 1962 and at Cambridge University , where he studied theoretical astrophysics with Leon Mestel and Donald Lynden-Bell and received his doctorate in 1965. As a post-doctoral student he was at the University of Texas with Gérard-Henri de Vaucouleurs and at Trinity College, Cambridge University. In 1967 he went back to Australia to the Mount Stromlo Observatory . He is Duffield Professor at the Mount Stromlo Observatory at the Australian National University in Canberra . He is a regular visiting scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute .

He deals with the formation and dynamics of galaxies and globular clusters and the problem of dark matter in galaxies. In 1970 he was the first to point out the necessity of dark matter in spiral galaxies from the study of the rotation of galaxies in the appendix to a work. Fritz Zwicky had already pointed this out in 1933, but it was forgotten again. Freeman's early forecast received support around 1978 by further investigation of the rotation of spiral galaxies with radio telescopes, extended to the interstellar gas in the galaxies and their surroundings.

His work from 1970 is one of his most cited works, but for the Freeman law for spiral galaxies, which states that spiral galaxies have constant surface brightness (the law is now considered obsolete and a selection effect), and models for the mass distribution in spiral galaxies ( Freeman Disk ) and less for dark matter prediction.

He later initiated a project to rapidly survey the galaxy with the acquisition of around 1 million stars and their chemical composition (Hermes at the Siding Spring Observatory , New South Wales). The aim is to reconstruct the evolution of our galaxy.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1981), whose Pawsey Medal he received in 1972, and the Royal Society (1998). In 1999 he received the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics . In 2012 he received the Australian Prime Minister's Prize for Science and in 2003 the Australian Centenary Medal. For 2014 he was awarded the Gruber Prize for Cosmology and for 2016 the Dirac Medal of the University of New South Wales . In 1994 he was Oort Professor at the University of Leiden and in 2003 Blaauw Professor in Groningen (where he was at the Kapteyn Institute in 1976). In 2004 the asteroid (18237) Kenfreeman was named after him. In 2017 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .

Fonts

  • On the disks of spiral and SO galaxies , Astrophysical Journal, Volume 160, 1970, pp. 811-830, online
  • with Geoff McNamara In search of dark matter , Springer Verlag 2006
  • with Joss Bland-Hawthorn The Baryon Halo of the Milky Way: A Fossil Record of Its Formation , Science, Volume 287, 2000, pp. 79-84
  • with Joss Bland-Hawthorn The new galaxy: Signatures of its formation , Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 40, 2002, pp. 487-537, Arxiv

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Astroph. J., Volume 160, p. 828 on NGC 300: If the HI rotation curve is correct, then there must be undetected matter beyond the optical extent of NGC 300, its mass must be at least of the same order as the mass of the detected galaxy
  2. ↑ Cosmos Magazine ( Memento from February 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 50463
personal data
SURNAME Freeman, Kenneth C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Freeman, Kenneth Charles (full name); Freeman, Ken (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Perth