Mark R. Showalter

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Mark R. Showalter

Mark Robert Showalter (born December 5, 1957 in Abington, Pennsylvania ) is an American astronomer .

As a Senior Research Scientist at the SETI Institute , he is the discoverer of six satellites and three planetary rings . Mark Robert Showalter is a principal researcher on the Rings Node planetary data system , a Cassini-Huygens co-investigator on Saturn , and he worked closely with the developers of the New Horizons mission.

biography

Showalter loved playing with science-related toys as a child, and later mowed lawns as a teenager to buy a telescope in high school . In 1979 he received his Bachelor of Arts in physics and mathematics from Oberlin College . After completing his basic training, he was initially undecided about pursuing a career in astronomy, but decided to do it after seeing the images of Jupiter sent back to Earth by Voyager 2 .

Showalter received his Masters of Science degree in 1982 and PhD in Astronomy from Cornell University in 1985 . His doctoral thesis dealt with Jupiter's ring system, and he also discovered one of the wafer-thin rings of Jupiter.

In 1990, Showalter discovered the eighteenth and innermost moon of Saturn using ten-year-old Voyager data.

In 2003 Showalter and Jack J. Lissauer discovered two new Uranus moons (Mab and Cupid) in images from the Hubble Space Telescope . In 2006, they announced the discovery of two very faint Uranus rings, the μ and ν rings.

In 2010, Showalter discovered that spiral vertical waves in Jupiter's rings were caused by the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in July 1994. A second smaller group of waves appears to be consistent with an unknown impact in early 1990. Showalter also found similar spiral patterns in the Saturn D-ring.

Showalter assisted the New Horizons team in determining the dangers the spacecraft would face while flying near Pluto. A search for faint dust rings from Pluto with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011 led to the discovery of the fourth moon, Kerberos. In collaboration with the New Horizons team, Showalter found the fifth moon, Styx, in July 2012.

On July 15, 2013, a team of astronomers led by Showalter discovered a previously unknown fourteenth moon in various images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope from 2004 to 2009.

The asteroid (18499) Showalter is named after Showalter.

Personal life

Showalter is a diver and photographer . He is married to Frank Yellin and they live together in California .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alan Boyle: Pluto's fifth moon discovered . MSNBC.com . July 11, 2012. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved on July 16, 2012.
  2. ^ Mark Showalter's Home Page . In: Rings Node, NASA Planetary Data System . July 2012. Archived from the original on September 17, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  3. ↑ Steve Tanner: SETI Institute's Ring Leader . In: San Jose Business Journal . January 7, 2007. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  4. ^ Cornell University Department of Astronomy Ph.D. recipients . Archived from the original on July 10, 2012.
  5. ↑ Mark Showalter, Burns, Cuzzi, Pollack: Discovery of Jupiter's 'gossamer' ring . In: Nature . 316, No. 6028, Aug. 8, 1985, pp. 526-528. bibcode : 1985Natur.316..526S . doi : 10.1038 / 316526a0 . PMID 11536560 .
  6. ^ Mark R Showalter: Visual detection of 1981 p . 13 . In: Nature . 351, No. 6329, June 27, 1991, pp. 709-73. bibcode : 1991Natur.351..709S . doi : 10.1038 / 351709a0 .
  7. ^ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature . In: International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature . Astrogeology Science Center, United States Geological Survey . July 21, 2006. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  8. ↑ Jürgen Blunck: Solar System Moons: Discovery and Mythology . Dordrecht, 2010, ISBN 978-3-540-68852-5 , p. 95.
  9. ^ Mark R Showalter, Lissauer: The second ring-moon system of Uranus: discovery and dynamics . In: Science . 311, No. 5763, February 17, 2006, pp. 973-977. bibcode : 2006Sci ... 311..973S . doi : 10.1126 / science.1122882 . PMID 16373533 .
  10. ↑ Eberhard Grün: Interplanetary Dust . Springer, 2001, ISBN 3-540-42067-3 , p. 668.
  11. ↑ J. Mason: Forensic sleuthing ties ring ripples to impacts . In: CICLOPS press release . Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations. March 31, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  12. ↑ NASA: Subtle Ripples in Jupiter's Ring . In: PIA 13893 caption . NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech / SETI. March 31, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2011.
  13. ↑ MR Showalter, MM Hedman, JA Burns: The impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 sends ripples through the rings of Jupiter . In: Science . 332, No. 6030, 2011, pp. 711-3. bibcode : 2011Sci ... 332..711S . doi : 10.1126 / science.1202241 . PMID 21454755 .
  14. ^ John Matson, A New Wrinkle: Comet Strikes in the 1980s and 1990s Left Ripples in Jupiter's and Saturn's Rings . In: Scientific American . March 31, 2011. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  15. ↑ MR Showalter: New Satellite of (134340) Pluto: S / 2011 (134340) 1 . In: Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams . International Astronomical Union . July 20, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  16. ↑ Ray Sanders: Hubble Space Telescope detects fifth moon of Pluto . Phys.org . July 11, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  17. ^ Dennis Overbye: Despite Downgrade, Pluto Adds to Entourage . In: New York Times . July 20, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  18. ↑ Beatty, Kelly. "Neptune's Newest Moon." Sky and Telescope. July 15, 2013. Accessed 2013-07-17.
  19. ↑ Neptune's Newest Moon on skyandtelescope.com
  20. ^ Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1980 - Class Notes . Archived from the original on December 25, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Showalter, Mark R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Showalter, Mark Robert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH 5th December 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Abington, Pennsylvania