Jennifer Hoffman | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley University of Wisconsin-Madison |
Known for | Polarimetry |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of California, Berkeley University of Denver |
Jennifer Hoffman is an American astrophysicist and associate professor at the University of Denver. She studies the circumstellar material around stars.
In 1994 Hoffman graduated from University of California, Berkeley, having spent a year at University of Göttingen. Hoffman earned her PhD in 2002. She worked with Kenneth Nordsieck on Locating Mass Loss: Numerical Modeling of Circumstellar Material in Binary Systems. [1]
In 2003 Hoffman was appointed a National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, Berkeley. [2] Here she compiled the Women in Astronomy Resource Page. [3] She became more involved in activities to promote diversity in physics and astronomy, working with Meg Urry on the American Astronomical Society Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy. [4] [5] [6] She worked with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on modelling supernova ejecta. [6]
At the University of Denver she leads on the HPOL spectropolarimeter. [7] She was the Editor of the 2013 book, "Stellar Polimetry: From Birth to Death (AIP Conference Proceedings/Astronomy and Astrophysics)". [8] In 2015 she was part of the Mintaka observing campaign. [9] [10] Hoffman's research group use three dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer to model the interaction of circumstellar material with the light of stars and supernovae.
Mintaka, designation Delta Orionis and 34 Orionis, is a multiple star system some 1,200 light-years from the Sun in the constellation of Orion. Together with Alnitak and Alnilam, the three stars form Orion's Belt, known by many names among ancient cultures. The star is located very close to the celestial equator. When Orion is near the meridian, Mintaka is the rightmost of the Belt's stars when viewed from the Northern Hemisphere facing south.
T Coronae Borealis, nicknamed the Blaze Star, is a binary star and a recurrent nova about 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Corona Borealis. It was first discovered in outburst in 1866 by John Birmingham, though it had been observed earlier as a 10th magnitude star. It may have been observed in 1217 and in 1787 as well.
R Hydrae, abbreviated R Hya, is a single star in the equatorial constellation of Hydra, about 2.7° to the east of Gamma Hydrae. It is a Mira-type variable that ranges in apparent visual magnitude from 3.5 down to 10.9 over a period of 389 days. At maximum brightness the star can be seen with the naked eye, while at minimum a telescope of at least 5 cm is needed. This star is located at a distance of approximately 410 light-years from the Sun but is drifting closer with a radial velocity of −10 km/s.
Lambda Geminorum, Latinized from λ Geminorum, is a candidate multiple star system in the constellation Gemini. It is visible to the naked eye at night with a combined apparent visual magnitude of 3.57. The distance to this system is 101 light years based on parallax, and it is drifting closer with a radial velocity of –7.4 km/s. It is a member of what is suspected to be a trailing tidal tail of the Hyades Stream.
Z Andromedae is a binary star system consisting of a red giant and a white dwarf. It is the prototype of a type of cataclysmic variable star known as symbiotic variable stars or simply Z Andromedae variables. The brightness of those stars vary over time, showing a quiescent, more stable phase and then an active one with a more pronounced variability and stronger brightening and/or dimming.
R Aquarii is a variable star in the constellation Aquarius.
T Cephei is a Mira variable star in the constellation Cepheus. Located approximately 600 light-years distant, it varies between magnitudes 5.2 and 11.3 over a period of around 388 days.
R Arae is an Algol-type eclipsing binary in the constellation Ara. Located approximately 298 parsecs (970 ly) distant, it normally shines at magnitude 6.17, but during eclipses can fall as low as magnitude 7.32. It has been suggested by multiple studies that mass transfer is occurring between the two stars of this system, and the period of eclipses seems to be increasing over time. The primary is a blue-white main sequence star of spectral type B5V that is 5 times as massive as the Sun, while the secondary is a yellow-white star of spectral type F1IV that is 1.5 times as massive as the Sun. Stellar material is being stripped off the secondary and accreting on the primary.
FU Orionis is a variable and binary star system in the constellation of Orion, that in 1937 rose in apparent visual magnitude from 16.5 to 9.6, and has since been around magnitude 9. The name FU Orionis is a variable star designation in the Argelander system, which are assigned sequentially as new variables are discovered. FU Orionis is about 1,360 light years distant and is associated with the molecular cloud Barnard 35.
g Herculis is a binary star system in the northern constellation of Hercules. It has the Flamsteed designation 30 Herculis, while g Herculis is the Bayer designation. This system is visible to the naked eye as a faint, red-hued point of light. Based upon a measured parallax of 9.2 mas, it is located around 354 light years away from the Sun. The system is moving further from the Earth with a heliocentric radial velocity of 1.5 km/s.
Scott Jay Kenyon is an American astrophysicist. His work has included advances in symbiotic and other types of interacting binary stars, the formation and evolution of stars, and the formation of planetary systems.
31 Orionis is a binary star system in the equatorial constellation of Orion, located near the bright star Mintaka. It is visible to the naked eye as a faint, orange-hued point of light with a baseline apparent visual magnitude of 4.71. The distance to this system is approximately 490 light years away based on parallax, and it is drifting further away with a mean radial velocity of +6 km/s.
An exocomet, or extrasolar comet, is a comet outside the Solar System, which includes rogue comets and comets that orbit stars other than the Sun. The first exocomets were detected in 1987 around Beta Pictoris, a very young A-type main-sequence star. There are now a total of 27 stars around which exocomets have been observed or suspected.
W Aquilae is a variable star in the constellation of Aquila. It is a type of evolved star known as an S-type star. Due to its relatively close distance of 1,200 light-years and equatorial location, it is easy to observe and heavily studied.
Vassiliki Kalogera is a Greek astrophysicist. She is a professor at Northwestern University and the director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). She is a leading member of the LIGO Collaboration that observed gravitational waves in 2015.
Nia Imara is an American astrophysicist, artist, and activist. Imara's scientific work deals with galactic mass, star formation, and exoplanet detection. Imara was the first African-American woman to earn a PhD in astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley and was the inaugural postdoctoral fellow in the Future Faculty Leaders program at Harvard University. In 2020, Imara joined the University of California, Santa Cruz as an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy. Her recent work includes 3D-printing models to aid visualization of molecular clouds.
JJ Eldridge is a theoretical astrophysicist based in New Zealand. Eldridge is the head of the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland and co-author of The Structure And Evolution Of Stars.
Angela Karen Speck is a Professor of Astrophysics and the Chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She works on infrared astronomy and the study of space dust. She is a popular science communicator, and was co-chair of the National Total Solar Eclipse Task Force.
HD 101584 is a suspected post-common envelope binary about 1,800 to 5,900 light-years distant in the constellation of Centaurus. The system is bright at optical wavelengths with an apparent visual magnitude of about 7. The primary is either a post-AGB star, but more likely a post-RGB star. The secondary is a red dwarf or possibly a low-luminosity white dwarf, which orbits the primary every 150-200 days. The system is surrounded by a slowly rotating circumbinary disk, probably with a face-on orientation towards the solar system and a size of about 150 astronomical units.
R Fornacis is a Mira variable and carbon star located in the constellation Fornax. It is around 1,800 light years away based on parallax measurements.
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