Marc Rafelski

Last updated
Marc Alexander Rafelski
Born (1982-02-08) February 8, 1982 (age 41)
Frankfurt, Germany
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of California, San Diego
SpouseLauren Anne Elmegreen Rafelski
Scientific career
Fields Astrophysics
Institutions Space Telescope Science Institute
Thesis Star formation in damped Lyman-alpha systems and the outskirts of Lyman break galaxies  (2011)
Doctoral advisor Arthur M. Wolfe

Marc Alexander Rafelski is an American astrophysicist. Rafelski studied astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles with Andrea Gehz. [1] [2] [3] He obtained his PhD in physics from the University of California, San Diego, under supervision of Arthur Wolfe, in 2011. [4]

Contents

Career

Between 2011 and 2016 Rafelski held postdoc positions at IPAC, Caltech, and NASA Goddard, moving on to a staff position at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore in 2016. [5] Starting in 2020, he is the branch manager for the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), a science instrument that was installed on the Hubble Space Telescope during Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125) in May 2009. [6]

Rafelski studies the formation and evolution of galaxies by looking at the physical characteristics and processes of high redshift galaxies and their associated gas reservoirs, inflows, and outflows. He started publishing already as an undergraduate student, both in astronomy [7] and heavy-ion physics. [8] Since then he has co-authored more than 200 scientific papers. [9]

Personal life

Marc Rafelski is son of Johann and Helga Rafelski, and adoptive son of Victoria Grossack. He  is married to Lauren Anne Elmegreen Rafelski. The couple has two children and lives in Maryland. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Globular cluster</span> Spherical collection of stars

A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars. Globular clusters are bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards their centers. They can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of member stars. Their name is derived from Latin globulus. Globular clusters are occasionally known simply as "globulars".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galactic Center</span> Rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy

The Galactic Center is the rotational center, the barycenter, of the Milky Way galaxy. Its central massive object is a supermassive black hole of about 4 million solar masses, which is called Sagittarius A*, a compact radio source which is almost exactly at the galactic rotational center. The Galactic Center is approximately 8 kiloparsecs (26,000 ly) away from Earth in the direction of the constellations Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Scorpius, where the Milky Way appears brightest, visually close to the Butterfly Cluster (M6) or the star Shaula, south to the Pipe Nebula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea M. Ghez</span> American astronomer (born 1965)

Andrea Mia Ghez is an American astrophysicist, Nobel laureate, and professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IC 1613</span> Irregular dwarf galaxy in the constellation Cetus

IC 1613 is an irregular dwarf galaxy, visible in the constellation Cetus near the star 26 Ceti. It was discovered in 1906 by Max Wolf, and is approaching Earth at 234 km/s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4323</span> Galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices

NGC 4323 is a lenticular or dwarf elliptical galaxy located about 52.5 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy was discovered in 1882 by astronomer Wilhelm Tempel and is a member of the Virgo Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 299</span> Open star cluster in the constellation Tucana

NGC 299 is an open cluster of stars in the main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud – a nearby dwarf galaxy. It is located in the southern constellation of Tucana, just under 200,000 light years distant from the Sun. The cluster was discovered on August 12, 1834 by English astronomer John Herschel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 708</span> Galaxy in the constellation Andromeda

NGC 708 is an elliptical galaxy located 240 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda and was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on September 21, 1786. It is classified as a cD galaxy and is the brightest member of Abell 262. NGC 708 is a weak FR I radio galaxy and is also classified as a type 2 Seyfert galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 759</span> Galaxy in the constellation Andromeda

NGC 759 is an elliptical galaxy located 230 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. NGC 759 was discovered by astronomer by Heinrich d'Arrest on September 17, 1865. It is a member of Abell 262.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4074</span> Galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices

NGC 4074 is a peculiar lenticular galaxy located 310 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 27, 1785 and is a member of the NGC 4065 Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4294</span> Galaxy in the constellation Virgo

NGC 4294 is a barred spiral galaxy with flocculent spiral arms located about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. The galaxy was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on March 15, 1784 and is a member of the Virgo Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4298</span> Galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices

NGC 4298 is a flocculent spiral galaxy located about 53 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 8, 1784 and is a member of the Virgo Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4299</span> Spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo

NGC 4299 is a featureless spiral galaxy located about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on March 15, 1784 and is a member of the Virgo Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4302</span> Galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices

NGC 4302 is an edge-on spiral galaxy located about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 8, 1784 and is a member of the Virgo Cluster.

Sangeeta Malhotra is an astrophysicist who studies galaxies, their contents, and their effects on the universe around them. The objects she studies range from our own Milky Way galaxy to some of the earliest and most distant known galaxies in the epoch of cosmic dawn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4800</span> Galaxy in constellation Canes Venatici

NGC 4800 is an isolated spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici, located at a distance of 95 megalight-years from the Milky Way. It was discovered by William Herschel on April 1, 1788. The morphological classification of this galaxy is SA(rs)b, indicating a spiral galaxy with no visual bar at the nucleus (SA), an incomplete ring structure (rs), and moderately-tightly wound spiral arms (b). The galactic plane is inclined to the line of sight by an angle of 43°, and the long axis is oriented along a position angle of 25°. There is a weak bar structure at the nucleus that is visible in the infrared.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4393</span> Galaxy in the constellation of Coma Berenices

NGC 4393 is a spiral galaxy about 46 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 11, 1785. It is a member of the NGC 4274 Group, which is part of the Coma I Group or Cloud.

References

  1. "Rafelski, Marc". isee.ucsc.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  2. "Galactic Astronomy at UCLA". www.astro.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  3. Rafelski, M.; Ghez, A. M.; Hornstein, S. D.; Lu, J. R.; Morris, M. (2007). "Photometric Stellar Variability in the Galactic Center". The Astrophysical Journal. 659 (2): 1241–1256. arXiv: astro-ph/0701082 . Bibcode:2007ApJ...659.1241R. doi: 10.1086/512062 . ISSN   0004-637X.
  4. Rafelski, Marc Alexander (2011). Star formation in damped Lyman-alpha systems and the outskirts of Lyman break galaxies (Thesis). UC San Diego.
  5. "Marc Rafelski's author profile in INSPIRE". inspirehep.net. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  6. "Marc Rafelski". STScI.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  7. Rafelski, Marc; Zaritsky, Dennis (2005). "The Star Clusters of the Small Magellanic Cloud: Age Distribution". The Astronomical Journal. 129 (6): 2701–2713. arXiv: astro-ph/0408186 . Bibcode:2005AJ....129.2701R. doi:10.1086/424938. ISSN   0004-6256. S2CID   4600017.
  8. Back, B. B.; Baker, M. D.; Barton, D. S.; Betts, R. R.; Bindel, R.; Budzanowski, A.; Busza, W.; Carroll, A.; Corbo, J.; Decowski, M. P.; Garcia, E. (2002). "Energy Dependence of Particle Multiplicities in Central A u + A u Collisions". Physical Review Letters. 88 (2): 022302. arXiv: nucl-ex/0108009 . Bibcode:2002PhRvL..88b2302B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.022302. ISSN   0031-9007. PMID   11801006. S2CID   34600571.
  9. "Papers co-authored by Marc Rafelski indexed by NASA/ADS". ui.adsabs.harvard.edu. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  10. "Lauren Elmegreen, Marc Rafelski". The New York Times. 2007-08-05. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2021-04-01.