Dale Frail

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Dale A. Frail is a Canadian astronomer working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Socorro, New Mexico.

Contents

Early life

He was born in Canada, spent much of his childhood in Europe, and his professional career has been based in the United States.

Career

Frail received his university education in Canada: first an undergraduate degree in Physics from Acadia University in Nova Scotia, followed by MSc and PhD degrees in Astrophysics from the University of Toronto. In 1989 he moved to the United States as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow. After completing a prized Jansky Postdoctoral Fellowship [1] in 1993, he joined the research staff of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, where he remains today.

He is the author of over 250 peer-reviewed research papers, [2] including more than 30 articles in the prestigious journal Nature. He has made contributions to numerous sub-fields of astrophysics including multi-wavelength electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational-wave events, gamma-ray bursts, extrasolar planets, soft gamma-ray repeaters, the interstellar medium, pulsars, masers, and supernova remnants. To the public he is best known for discoveries in extrasolar planets and gamma-ray bursts. In 2010, he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. [3] From August 2011 through September 2015, he was NRAO's Assistant Director for the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and the Very Long Baseline Array, and site director for New Mexico operations. [4] In 2016, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Acadia University. [5]

Key discoveries

In early 1992, Frail and Polish astronomer Aleksander Wolszczan announced their discovery [6] of the existence of two planets and a possible third around the pulsar PSR B1257+12. Their discovery was confirmed in mid-1992. In addition to being the first confirmed discovery of pulsar planets, the find is also generally considered to be the first confirmed discovery of extrasolar planets of any kind.

Beginning in 1997, Frail was part of a Caltech-NRAO team that helped unravel the long-standing mystery of the origin of gamma-ray bursts. They used an optical spectrum taken with the Keck Telescope toward the optical afterglow of GRB 970508 to establish that gamma-ray bursts were at cosmological distances. [7] They then used the Very Large Array radio telescope discovery of radio afterglow emission from this same burst to measure the object's size and infer that the source was expanding relativistically. [8] These two observations have remained cornerstones in the cosmological fireball model for gamma-ray bursts. [9] [10] In 2009 Thomson ISI listed Frail as the third-most cited researcher in the field of gamma-ray bursts over the period from 1999 to February 2009. [11]

There are many popular science accounts of the discovery of extra-solar planets as well as those of gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows. Links to a few of these and other relevant articles can be found below.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamma-ray burst</span> Flashes of gamma rays from distant galaxies

In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies, described by NASA as "the most powerful class of explosions in the universe". They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten milliseconds to several hours. After an initial flash of gamma rays, a longer-lived "afterglow" is usually emitted at longer wavelengths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aleksander Wolszczan</span> 20th and 21st-century Polish astronomer

Aleksander Wolszczan is a Polish astronomer. He is the co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets and pulsar planets.

PSR B1257+12, previously designated PSR 1257+12, alternatively designated PSR J1300+1240, is a millisecond pulsar located 2,300 light-years from the Sun in the constellation of Virgo, rotating at about 161 times per second. It is also named Lich, after a powerful, fictional undead creature of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 970228</span> Gamma-ray burst detected on 28 Feb 1997, the first for which an afterglow was observed

GRB 970228 was the first gamma-ray burst (GRB) for which an afterglow was observed. It was detected on 28 February 1997 at 02:58 UTC. Since 1993, physicists had predicted GRBs to be followed by a lower-energy afterglow, but until this event, GRBs had only been observed in highly luminous bursts of high-energy gamma rays ; this resulted in large positional uncertainties which left their nature very unclear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrinivas Kulkarni</span> American-Indian astronomer (born 1956)

Shrinivas Ramchandra Kulkarni is a US-based astronomer born and raised in India. He is currently a professor of astronomy and planetary science at California Institute of Technology, and he served as director of Caltech Optical Observatory (COO) at California Institute of Technology, in which capacity he oversaw the Palomar and Keck among other telescopes. He is the recipient of a number of awards and honours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 970508</span> Gamma-ray burst detected on May 8, 1997

GRB 970508 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on May 8, 1997, at 21:42 UTC; it is historically important as the second GRB with a detected afterglow at other wavelengths, the first to have a direct redshift measurement of the afterglow, and the first to be detected at radio wavelengths.

The history of gamma-ray began with the serendipitous detection of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) on July 2, 1967, by the U.S. Vela satellites. After these satellites detected fifteen other GRBs, Ray Klebesadel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory published the first paper on the subject, Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin. As more and more research was done on these mysterious events, hundreds of models were developed in an attempt to explain their origins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 090423</span> Gamma-ray burst detected in 2009

GRB 090423 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission on April 23, 2009 at 07:55:19 UTC whose afterglow was detected in the infrared and enabled astronomers to determine that its redshift is z = 8.2, which makes it one of the most distant objects detected to date with a spectroscopic redshift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 990123</span>

GRB 990123 is a gamma-ray burst which was detected on January 23, 1999. It was the first GRB for which a simultaneous optical flash was detected. Astronomers first managed to obtain a visible-light image of a GRB as it occurred on January 23, 1999, using the ROTSE-I telescope in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The ROTSE-I was operated by a team under Dr. Carl W. Akerlof of the University of Michigan and included members from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The robotic telescope was fully automated, responding to signals from NASA's BATSE instrument aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory within seconds, without human intervention. In the dark hours of the morning of January 23, 1999, the Compton satellite recorded a gamma-ray burst that lasted for about a minute and a half. There was a peak of gamma and X-ray emission 25 seconds after the event was first detected, followed by a somewhat smaller peak 40 seconds after the beginning of the event. The emission then fizzled out in a series of small peaks over the next 50 seconds, and eight minutes after the event had faded to a hundredth of its maximum brightness. The burst was so strong that it ranked in the top 2% of all bursts detected.

GRB 050709 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on July 9, 2005. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, which is often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitting at longer wavelengths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald C. Backer</span> American astrophysicist

Donald Charles Backer was an American astrophysicist who primarily worked in radio astronomy. Backer made important contributions to the understanding and study of pulsars, black holes, and the epoch of reionization.

X-ray emission occurs from many celestial objects. These emissions can have a pattern, occur intermittently, or as a transient astronomical event. In X-ray astronomy many sources have been discovered by placing an X-ray detector above the Earth's atmosphere. Often, the first X-ray source discovered in many constellations is an X-ray transient. These objects show changing levels of X-ray emission. NRL astronomer Dr. Joseph Lazio stated: " ... the sky is known to be full of transient objects emitting at X- and gamma-ray wavelengths, ...". There are a growing number of recurrent X-ray transients. In the sense of traveling as a transient, the only stellar X-ray source that does not belong to a constellation is the Sun. As seen from Earth, the Sun moves from west to east along the ecliptic, passing over the course of one year through the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, and Ophiuchus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beethoven Burst (GRB 991216)</span> Gamma-ray burst in constellation Orion

GRB 991216, nicknamed the Beethoven Burst by Dr. Brad Schaefer of Yale University, was a gamma-ray burst observed on December 16, 1999, coinciding with the 229th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash associated with an explosion in a distant galaxy and producing gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, and often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths.

GRB 000131 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that was detected on 31 January 2000 at 14:59 UTC. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash associated with an explosion in a distant galaxy and producing gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, and often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths.

GRB 020813 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that was detected on 13 August 2002 at 02:44 UTC. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash associated with an explosion in a distant galaxy and producing gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, and often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths.

GRB 031203 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on December 3, 2003. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash associated with an explosion in a distant galaxy and producing gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, and often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths.

GRB 030329 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that was detected on 29 March 2003 at 11:37 UTC. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash associated with an explosion in a distant galaxy and producing gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, and often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths. GRB 030329 was the first burst whose afterglow definitively exhibited characteristics of a supernova, confirming the existence of a relationship between the two phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 221009A</span> Gamma-ray burst

GRB 221009A also known as Swift J1913.1+1946 was an unusually bright and long-lasting gamma-ray burst (GRB) jointly discovered by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on October 9, 2022. The gamma-ray burst was around seven minutes long, but was detectable for more than ten hours following initial detection, and for several hours was bright enough in visible frequencies to be observable by amateur astronomers. Despite being over 2 billion light-years away, it was powerful enough to affect Earth's atmosphere, having the strongest effect ever recorded by a gamma-ray burst on the planet. The peak luminosity of GRB 221009A was measured by Konus-Wind to be ∼ 2.1 × 1047 J/s and by Fermi-GBM to be ∼ 1.0 × 1047 J/s over the 1.024s interval. A burst as energetic and as close to Earth as 221009A is thought to be a once-in-10,000-year event. It was the brightest and most energetic gamma-ray burst ever recorded, being deemed the "BOAT", or brightest of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pulsar planet</span> Planets found orbiting pulsars, or rapidly rotating pulsars

Pulsar planets are planets that are orbiting pulsars. The first such planets to be discovered were around a millisecond pulsar in 1992 and were the first extrasolar planets to be confirmed as discovered. Pulsars are extremely precise clocks and even small planets can create detectable variations in pulsar traits; the smallest known exoplanet is a pulsar planet.

References

  1. ↑ Burns, Jessica. "2021 Jansky Fellowship Program". National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  2. ↑ "Dale Frail", Partial list from the NASA ADS database
  3. ↑ "Dale Frail". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  4. ↑ "New assistant director named at EVLA". El Defensor Chieftain. July 30, 2011. Retrieved August 23, 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  5. ↑ "Acadia to confer six honorary degrees during Convocation 2016". Acadia University. May 12, 2016. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  6. ↑ Wolszczan, A.; Frail, D. A. (1992). "A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR1257+12". Nature. 355 (6356): 145–147. Bibcode:1992Natur.355..145W. doi:10.1038/355145a0. S2CID   4260368.
  7. ↑ Metzger, M. R.; Djorgovski, S. G.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Steidel, C. C.; Adelberger, K. L.; Frail, D. A.; Costa, E.; Frontera, F. (1997). "Spectral constraints on the redshift of the optical counterpart to the γ-ray burst of 8 May 1997". Nature. 387 (6636): 878–880. Bibcode:1997Natur.387..878M. doi: 10.1038/43132 .
  8. ↑ Frail, D. A.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Nicastro, L.; Feroci, M.; Taylor, G. B. (1997). "The radio afterglow from the γ-ray burst of 8 May 1997". Nature. 389 (6648): 261–263. Bibcode:1997Natur.389..261F. doi:10.1038/38451. S2CID   4342265.
  9. ↑ Piran, T. (1999). "Gamma-ray bursts and the fireball model". Physics Reports. 314 (6): 575–667. arXiv: astro-ph/9810256 . Bibcode:1999PhR...314..575P. doi:10.1016/S0370-1573(98)00127-6. S2CID   118919707.
  10. ↑ Frail, D. A.; Waxman, E.; Kulkarni, S. R. (2000). "A 450 Day Light Curve of the Radio Afterglow of GRB 970508: Fireball Calorimetry". The Astrophysical Journal. 537 (1): 191–204. arXiv: astro-ph/9910319 . Bibcode:2000ApJ...537..191F. doi:10.1086/309024. S2CID   15652654.
  11. ↑ http://archive.sciencewatch.com/ana/st/gamma/authors/ Special Topics Analysis of Gamma-ray Burst (GRB) Research
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