Phil Diamond

Last updated
Phil Diamond

Born
Philip John Diamond

(1958-02-18) February 18, 1958 (age 66) [1]
Bude, Cornwall, United Kingdom [1]
NationalityBritish
CitizenshipUK
Alma mater
Known for
Scientific career
Fields Radio astronomy
Institutions
Thesis MERLIN observations of the circumstellar envelopes around OH/IR stars  (1982)
Website www.jb.man.ac.uk/~pdiamond

Philip John Diamond CBE HonFInstP is a Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. He was the director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics from 1 October 2006 until 2010. He was the Chief of CSIRO's Astronomy and Space Sciences Division from 1 June 2010 [2] and in October 2012 he left CSIRO to become the Director General of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Organisation. [3] [4]

Contents

Education

Diamond was educated at the University of Leeds ( Bachelor of Science 1979) and the University of Manchester where he was awarded a PhD in Radio astronomy in 1982 for work on MERLIN and OH/IR stars. [1] [5] [6]

Research

Diamond's research focuses on astrophysical masers. [7] [8] [9] [10]

Honours and awards

Diamond was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to global radio astronomy. [11] [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proper motion</span> Measure of observed changes in the apparent locations of stars

Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more distant stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Einstein ring</span> Feature seen when light is gravitationally lensed by an object

An Einstein ring, also known as an Einstein–Chwolson ring or Chwolson ring, is created when light from a galaxy or star passes by a massive object en route to the Earth. Due to gravitational lensing, the light is diverted, making it seem to come from different places. If source, lens, and observer are all in perfect alignment (syzygy), the light appears as a ring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messier 106</span> Galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici

Messier 106 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus classified as a Type 2 Seyfert, and the presence of a central supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole. NGC 4217 is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106.

HD 114729 is a Sun-like star with an orbiting exoplanet in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Based on parallax measurements, it is located at a distance of 124 light years from the Sun. It is near the lower limit of visibility to the naked eye, having an apparent visual magnitude of 6.68 The system is drifting further away with a heliocentric radial velocity of 26.3 km/s. The system has a relatively high proper motion, traversing the celestial sphere at an angular rate of 0.373″·yr−1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calar Alto Observatory</span> Observatory

The Calar Alto Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a 2,168-meter-high (7,113 ft) mountain in the Sierra de Los Filabres subrange of the Sierra Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrophysical maser</span>

An astrophysical maser is a naturally occurring source of stimulated spectral line emission, typically in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This emission may arise in molecular clouds, comets, planetary atmospheres, stellar atmospheres, or various other conditions in interstellar space.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megamaser</span> Astrophysical maser, source of stimulated spectral line emission

A megamaser is a type of astrophysical maser, which is a naturally occurring source of stimulated spectral line emission. Megamasers are distinguished from other astrophysical masers by their large isotropic luminosity. Megamasers have typical luminosities of 103 solar luminosities (L), which is 100 million times brighter than masers in the Milky Way, hence the prefix mega. Likewise, the term kilomaser is used to describe masers outside the Milky Way that have luminosities of order L, or thousands of times stronger than the average maser in the Milky Way, gigamaser is used to describe masers billions of times stronger than the average maser in the Milky Way, and extragalactic maser encompasses all masers found outside the Milky Way. Most known extragalactic masers are megamasers, and the majority of megamasers are hydroxyl (OH) megamasers, meaning the spectral line being amplified is one due to a transition in the hydroxyl molecule. There are known megamasers for three other molecules: water (H2O), formaldehyde (H2CO), and methine (CH).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Davies</span> British astronomer

Rodney Deane Davies CBE FRS was a Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester. He was the President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1987–1989, and the Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory in 1988–97. He is best known for his research on the Cosmic microwave background and the 21cm line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester</span>

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester is one of the largest and most active physics departments in the UK, taking around 250 new undergraduates and 50 postgraduates each year, and employing more than 80 members of academic staff and over 100 research fellows and associates. The department is based on two sites: the Schuster Laboratory on Brunswick Street and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in Cheshire, international headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRS 1915+105</span> Binary system in the constellation Aquila

GRS 1915+105 or V1487 Aquilae is an X-ray binary star system which features a regular star and a black hole. It was discovered on August 15, 1992 by the WATCH all-sky monitor aboard Granat. "GRS" stands for "GRANAT source", "1915" is the right ascension and "105" reflects the approximate declination. The near-infrared counterpart was confirmed by spectroscopic observations. The binary system lies 11,000 parsecs away in Aquila. GRS 1915+105 is the heaviest of the stellar black holes so far known in the Milky Way Galaxy, with 10 to 18 times the mass of the Sun. It is also a microquasar, and it appears that the black hole rotates at least 950 times per second, close to the maximum of 1,150 times per second, with a spin parameter value between 0.82 and 1.00.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T Cephei</span> Star in the constellation Cepheus

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">19 Cephei</span> Star in the constellation Cepheus

19 Cephei is a supergiant star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Cepheus. It has a spectral class of O9 and is a member of Cep OB2, an OB association of massive stars located about 615 parsecs (2,010 ly) from the Sun.

W43A or IRAS 18450-0148 is a late-type star with an envelope of OH/IR type with a magnetically collimated jet. The star is in the early stages of becoming a planetary nebula, a process that will take several thousand years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S Persei</span> Red supergiant or hypergiant variable star in the constellation Perseus

S Persei is a red supergiant or hypergiant located near the Double Cluster in Perseus, north of the cluster NGC 869. It is a member of the Perseus OB1 association and one of the largest known stars. If placed in the Solar System, its photosphere would engulf the orbit of Jupiter. It is also a semiregular variable, a star whose variations are less regular than those of Mira variables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Govind Swarup</span> Indian radio astronomer

Govind Swarup was a pioneer in radio astronomy. In addition to research contributions in multiple areas of astronomy and astrophysics, he was a driving force behind the building of "ingenious, innovative and powerful observational facilities for front-line research in radio astronomy".

VX Sagittarii is an asymptotic giant branch star located more than 1.5 kiloparsec away from the Sun in the constellation of Sagittarius. It is a pulsating variable star with an unusually large magnitude range. It is one of the largest stars discovered, with a radius varying between 1,350 and 1,940 solar radii (940,000,000 and 1.35×109 km; 6.3 and 9.0 au). It is the most luminous known AGB star, at bolometric magnitude –8.6, which is brighter than the theoretical limit at –8.0.

Lambda Cygni is a class B5V star in the constellation Cygnus. Its apparent magnitude is 4.54 and it is approximately 770 light years away based on parallax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 1386</span> Galaxy in the constellation Eridanus

NGC 1386 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Eridanus. It is located at a distance of circa 53 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 1386 is about 50,000 light years across. It is a Seyfert galaxy, the only one in Fornax Cluster.

Katherine Gudrun Isaak is a British astrophysicist and the Project Scientist for the European Space Agency Characterising Exoplanet Satellite mission (CHEOPS). She is based at European Space Research and Technology Centre.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "DIAMOND, Dr Philip John". Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014; online edn, Oxford University Press.(subscription required)
  2. "Dr Phil Diamond". ICRAR. 28 May 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  3. Spie (2014). "Philip Diamond plenary: The Square Kilometre Array: A Physics Machine for the 21st Century". SPIE Newsroom. doi:10.1117/2.3201407.12.
  4. "New leader for Australia's astronomy and space science research". CSIRO. 31 January 2013. Archived from the original on 18 October 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  5. Diamond, Philip John (1982). MERLIN observations of the circumstellar envelopes around OH/IR stars (PhD thesis). University of Manchester. OCLC   643586958.
  6. Phil Diamond's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  7. Vlemmings, W. H. T.; Diamond, P. J.; Imai, H. (2006). "A magnetically collimated jet from an evolved star". Nature. 440 (7080): 58–60. arXiv: astro-ph/0603003 . Bibcode:2006Natur.440...58V. doi:10.1038/nature04466. PMID   16511488. S2CID   1899909.
  8. Herrnstein, J. R.; Moran, J. M.; Greenhill, L. J.; Diamond, P. J.; Inoue, M.; Nakai, N.; Miyoshi, M.; Henkel, C.; Riess#, A. (1999). "A geometric distance to the galaxy NGC4258 from orbital motions in a nuclear gas disk". Nature. 400 (6744): 539. arXiv: astro-ph/9907013 . Bibcode:1999Natur.400..539H. doi:10.1038/22972. S2CID   204995005.
  9. Miyoshi, M.; Moran, J.; Herrnstein, J.; Greenhill, L.; Nakai, N.; Diamond, P.; Inoue, M. (1995). "Evidence for a black hole from high rotation velocities in a sub-parsec region of NGC4258". Nature. 373 (6510): 127. Bibcode:1995Natur.373..127M. doi:10.1038/373127a0. S2CID   4336316.
  10. List of published papers
  11. "No. 64269". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2023. p. N9.
  12. "Awards for New Year 2024" (PDF). www.gov.uk. Retrieved 29 December 2023.