Sten Odenwald

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Sten Odenwald
Sten Odenwald.jpg
Born
Sten Felix Odenwald

(1952-11-23) November 23, 1952 (age 70)
Karlskoga, Sweden
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States of America
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University
Scientific career
Fields Physics, astronomy, science communication
Thesis A Far-Infrared Survey of the Galactic Center  (1982)
Doctoral advisor Prof. Giovanni Fazio
Other academic advisorsProf. Eric Chaisson
Website The Astronomy Cafe

Sten Felix Odenwald (born November 23, 1952) is an American astronomer, author, and NASA scientist-educator. Odenwald has worked as part of the NASA Cosmic Background Explorer, Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment investigating the cosmic infrared background. He has published four books: The Astronomy Cafe, The 23rd Cycle, Patterns in the Void and Back to the Astronomy Cafe. He has also appeared in a number of TV and radio documentaries on astronomy and space weather. Since receiving his Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University in 1982, he has been an astronomer in the Washington, D.C. area, primarily at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Since 2000, he has been actively involved in science and math education at NASA, and was a founding member of the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, [1] among many other high-visibility NASA education projects involving space weather issues, archeoastronomy and the transits of Venus in 2004 and 2012. He is currently the director of STEM Education at the National Institute of Aerospace. [2]

Contents

Early life

At Harvard, he studied accretion disks around supermassive black holes. He then worked with Dr. Giovanni Fazio, and completed his Ph.D. in 1982 by investigating the far-infrared properties of the Galactic Center of the Milky Way and the interstellar environment of a million-solar-mass black hole found there. [3] He also worked at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, participating in high-altitude balloon launches involving the 1-meter infrared telescope that Fazio and his team built in 1975. While at Harvard, he was the teaching assistant for Owen Gingerich and David Latham. [4]

Career

Following the completion of his Ph.D., Odenwald moved to Washington, D.C., in 1982, where he worked as a postdoctoral candidate at the Space Sciences Division of the Naval Research Laboratory until 1990. While there, he continued his partnership with the Harvard-Smithsonian balloon program and wrote a series of papers on various star-forming regions in the Cygnus X region of the Milky Way including DR-6, DR-7, DR-22 [5] as well as DR-15 and DR-20. [6] He also investigated star-forming regions associated with supernova remnants such as IC-433 [7] and W-28 [8] in order to find evidence for star formation triggered by supernova remnant impacts. Subsequently, he worked with the IRAS infrared data to investigate the frequency and distribution of young stellar objects in the Cygnus-X region, [9] [10] detect asteroidal debris disks surrounding sun-like stars, [11] and conducted an investigation of a new class of interstellar dust clouds that he had discovered, beginning with the archetype of this class called the Draco Cloud. [12] This was the first time that astronomers had discovered hydrodynamical processes acting in the interstellar medium to sculpt the shapes of interstellar dust clouds. [13] At NRL, and working with Dr. Kandiah Shivanandan, [14] he built a cryogenically cooled array camera that operated in the mid-infrared, and made frequent trips to the Wyomning Infrared Observatory (WIRO) [15] to collaborate with Prof. Harley Thronsen [16] to map a variety of compact infrared sources. The details of this camera and its scientific results were published in 1992. [17]

After a brief stint working for NASA headquarters pursuing education projects, he joined Dr. Mike Hauser with the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Team in 1992, working on the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE). In addition to continuing his investigations of the Cygnus-X region using the new DIRBE far-infrared data, he made the discovery that the DIRBE instrument could detect over 100 galaxies beyond the Milky Way. This was a capacity that the COBE Science Team had not considered. This led to a breakthrough paper [18] detailing the quantity of very cold interstellar dust in these galaxies, which were all spiral-type. In addition to investigating individual extragalactic sources, Odenwald collaborated with Dr. Alexander Kashlinsky and Dr. John Mather, who were investigating the cosmic infrared background, which as yet had not been detected by 1997. When the COBE program ended, Odenwald continued his collaboration with Kashlinsky and Mather, which led to a number of papers related to the cosmic infrared background radiation and traces of its structure at infrared wavelengths. [19] [20] Since 2005, Odenwald's research has focused on space weather, specifically the way in which solar storms cause economic damage to satellites in space. [21] [22]

astronomycafe.net

The Astronomy Cafe [23] is a website that Odenwald started in 1995 as an experiment in public education using the then-new medium of the World Wide Web, which could now be navigated with the MOSAIC web browser. It initially offered essays and collections of visual imagery in astronomy. Odenwald debuted the Ask the Astronomer section of the site in 1996, where he invited people to email questions about astronomy, and he would post the answers. The Astronomy Café traffic grew, and by 1998, the Ask the Astronomer section had reached 3000 questions. Over the years, Odenwald has created web resources in space weather, [24] and a variety of NASA resources such as SpaceMath@NASA. [25]

Books

Self-Published Books:

• A Guide To Smartphone Astrophotography- Space Math

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmic microwave background</span> Trace radiation from the early universe

The cosmic microwave background is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. It is a remnant that provides an important source of data on the primordial universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dark. However, a sufficiently sensitive radio telescope detects a faint background glow that is almost uniform and is not associated with any star, galaxy, or other object. This glow is strongest in the microwave region of the radio spectrum. The accidental discovery of the CMB in 1965 by American radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson was the culmination of work initiated in the 1940s.

Infrared astronomy is a sub-discipline of astronomy which specializes in the observation and analysis of astronomical objects using infrared (IR) radiation. The wavelength of infrared light ranges from 0.75 to 300 micrometers, and falls in between visible radiation, which ranges from 380 to 750 nanometers, and submillimeter waves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrochemistry</span> Study of molecules in the Universe and their reactions

Astrochemistry is the study of the abundance and reactions of molecules in the universe, and their interaction with radiation. The discipline is an overlap of astronomy and chemistry. The word "astrochemistry" may be applied to both the Solar System and the interstellar medium. The study of the abundance of elements and isotope ratios in Solar System objects, such as meteorites, is also called cosmochemistry, while the study of interstellar atoms and molecules and their interaction with radiation is sometimes called molecular astrophysics. The formation, atomic and chemical composition, evolution and fate of molecular gas clouds is of special interest, because it is from these clouds that solar systems form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dark nebula</span> Type of interstellar cloud that obscures visible light

A dark nebula or absorption nebula is a type of interstellar cloud, particularly molecular clouds, that is so dense that it obscures the visible wavelengths of light from objects behind it, such as background stars and emission or reflection nebulae. The extinction of the light is caused by interstellar dust grains located in the coldest, densest parts of molecular clouds. Clusters and large complexes of dark nebulae are associated with Giant Molecular Clouds. Isolated small dark nebulae are called Bok globules. Like other interstellar dust or material, things it obscures are only visible using radio waves in radio astronomy or infrared in infrared astronomy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmic Background Explorer</span> NASA satellite of the Explorer program

The Cosmic Background Explorer, also referred to as Explorer 66, was a NASA satellite dedicated to cosmology, which operated from 1989 to 1993. Its goals were to investigate the cosmic microwave background radiation of the universe and provide measurements that would help shape our understanding of the cosmos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmochemistry</span> Study of the chemical composition of matter in the universe

Cosmochemistry or chemical cosmology is the study of the chemical composition of matter in the universe and the processes that led to those compositions. This is done primarily through the study of the chemical composition of meteorites and other physical samples. Given that the asteroid parent bodies of meteorites were some of the first solid material to condense from the early solar nebula, cosmochemists are generally, but not exclusively, concerned with the objects contained within the Solar System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrophysics</span> Subfield of astronomy

Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the heavenly bodies, rather than their positions or motions in space–what they are, rather than where they are." Among the subjects studied are the Sun, other stars, galaxies, extrasolar planets, the interstellar medium and the cosmic microwave background. Emissions from these objects are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. Because astrophysics is a very broad subject, astrophysicists apply concepts and methods from many disciplines of physics, including classical mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear and particle physics, and atomic and molecular physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messier 81</span> Spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major

Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a grand design spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It has a D25 isophotal diameter of 29.44 kiloparsecs (96,000 light-years). Because of its relative proximity to the Milky Way galaxy, large size, and active galactic nucleus (which harbors a 70 million M☉ supermassive black hole), Messier 81 has been studied extensively by professional astronomers. The galaxy's large size and relatively high brightness also makes it a popular target for amateur astronomers. In late February 2022, astronomers reported that M81 may be the source of FRB 20200120E, a repeating fast radio burst.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extinction (astronomy)</span> Interstellar absorption and scattering of light

In astronomy, extinction is the absorption and scattering of electromagnetic radiation by dust and gas between an emitting astronomical object and the observer. Interstellar extinction was first documented as such in 1930 by Robert Julius Trumpler. However, its effects had been noted in 1847 by Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, and its effect on the colors of stars had been observed by a number of individuals who did not connect it with the general presence of galactic dust. For stars lying near the plane of the Milky Way which are within a few thousand parsecs of the Earth, extinction in the visual band of frequencies is roughly 1.8 magnitudes per kiloparsec.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interplanetary medium</span> Material which fills the Solar System

The interplanetary medium (IPM) or interplanetary space consists of the mass and energy which fills the Solar System, and through which all the larger Solar System bodies, such as planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets, move. The IPM stops at the heliopause, outside of which the interstellar medium begins. Before 1950, interplanetary space was widely considered to either be an empty vacuum, or consisting of "aether".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmic dust</span> Dust floating in space

Cosmic dust – also called extraterrestrial dust, space dust, or star dust – is dust that occurs in outer space or has fallen onto Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 μm), such as micrometeoroids. Larger particles are called meteoroids. Cosmic dust can be further distinguished by its astronomical location: intergalactic dust, interstellar dust, interplanetary dust, and circumplanetary dust. There are several methods to obtain space dust measurement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Roman</span> American astronomer (1925–2018)

Nancy Grace Roman was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, establishing her as one of the "visionary founders of the US civilian space program".

Edward L. (Ned) Wright is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist. He has worked on space missions including the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) projects.

Cosmic infrared background is infrared radiation caused by stellar dust.

In astrophysics, dark flow is a theoretical non-random component of the peculiar velocity of galaxy clusters. The actual measured velocity is the sum of the velocity predicted by Hubble's Law plus a possible small and unexplained velocity flowing in a common direction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DR 21</span>

DR 21 is a large molecular cloud located in the constellation Cygnus, discovered in 1966 as a radio continuum source by Downes and Rinehart. DR 21 is located about 6,000 light-years (1,800 pc) from Earth and extends for 80 light-years (25 pc). The region contains a high rate of star formation and is associated with the Cygnus X star forming region. It has an estimated mass of 1,000,000 M☉.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lockman Hole</span> Area of the sky with minimal amounts of neutral hydrogen

The Lockman Hole is an area of the sky in which minimal amounts of neutral hydrogen gas are observed from the perspective of Earth. The Lockman Hole is a relatively clear window on distant objects, which makes it an attractive area of the sky for observational astronomy surveys. It is located near the pointer stars of the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major and is ~15 square degrees in size.

Jean-Loup Puget is a French astrophysicist. His current research interests lie in the Cosmic Microwave Background. Jean-Loup Puget and his collaborators reported the first identification of the Cosmic infrared background using COBE data. He is also, along with Alain Léger, credited with the origin of the hypothesis that the series of infrared lines observed in numerous astrophysical objects are caused by emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. He is currently principal investigator of the HFI module of the Planck space mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IRAS 20324+4057</span>

IRAS 20324+4057 is a mixture of interstellar gas and dust that extends a light year in length in the Cygnus constellation, 4,600 light-years away. It is located within the Cygnus OB2 association. It has been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope and has been nicknamed a "Cosmic Caterpillar", as it resembles a crawling caterpillar. The head of the object is a protostar, but the presence of 65 O-type stars, which tend to scatter the matter accumulated by the Cosmic caterpillar, leaves doubt whether the caterpillar will survive and mature into a star.

Thushara Pillai is an Indian astrophysicist and astronomer with a senior research scientist position at Boston University's Institute for Astrophysical Research. Her research interests have included molecular clouds, high-mass star formation, magnetic fields, astrochemistry, and the Galactic Center. She is known for her work that looked to understand star formation by observing magnetized interstellar clouds, and Pillai is the first astronomer to capture images of magnetic fields reorienting near areas of star formation.

References

  1. ↑ "[70.21] the Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum -Helping NASA Missions and Scientists Participate in Education and Public Outreach".
  2. ↑ "K-20 Education Programs".
  3. ↑ Odenwald, S. F.; Fazio, G. G. (1984). "A far-infrared survey of the galactic center". The Astrophysical Journal. 283: 601. Bibcode:1984ApJ...283..601O. doi: 10.1086/162345 .
  4. ↑ "David Latham".
  5. ↑ Odenwald, S.; Shivanandan, K.; Campbell, M.; Fazio, G.; Schwartz, P.; Moseley, H. (1986). "Far-infrared and radio observations of DR 6, DR 7, and DR 22". The Astrophysical Journal. 306: 122. Bibcode:1986ApJ...306..122O. doi:10.1086/164325.
  6. ↑ Odenwald, S. F.; Campbell, M. F.; Shivanandan, K.; Schwartz, P.; Fazio, G. G.; Moseley, H. (1990). "Multiwavelength observations of two B-star nurseries - DR 15 and DR 20". The Astronomical Journal. 99: 288. Bibcode:1990AJ.....99..288O. doi:10.1086/115327.
  7. ↑ Odenwald, S. F.; Shivanandan, K. (1985). "Star-forming regions near the supernova remnant IC 443". The Astrophysical Journal. 292: 460. Bibcode:1985ApJ...292..460O. doi: 10.1086/163175 .
  8. ↑ Odenwald, S. F.; Shivanandan, K.; Fazio, G. G.; McBreen, B.; Campbell, M. F.; Moseley, H.; Rengarajan, T. N.; Moseley, H. (1984). "Far-infrared sources in the vicinity of the supernova remnant W28". The Astrophysical Journal. 279: 162. Bibcode:1984ApJ...279..162O. doi: 10.1086/161877 – via ResearchGate.
  9. ↑ Odenwald, Sten F. (1993). "The Cygnus-X region: An IRAS view". Back to the Galaxy. p. 238. Bibcode:1993AIPC..278..238O. doi:10.1063/1.43980.{{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  10. ↑ Odenwald, Sten F. (1989). "An IRAS survey of young stellar objects towards the Cygnus X region". The Astronomical Journal. 97: 801. Bibcode:1989AJ.....97..801O. doi: 10.1086/115025 – via ResearchGate.
  11. ↑ Odenwald, S. F. (1986). "An IRAS survey of IR excesses in G-type stars". The Astrophysical Journal. 307: 711. Bibcode:1986ApJ...307..711O. doi:10.1086/164456.
  12. ↑ Odenwald, Sten F.; Rickard, Lee J. (1987). "Hydrodynamical processes in the Draco molecular cloud". The Astrophysical Journal. 318: 702. Bibcode:1987ApJ...318..702O. doi: 10.1086/165404 .
  13. ↑ Odenwald, Sten F. (1988). "Comet-like clouds at far-infrared and optical wavelengths - Mach cones and hydrodynamics?". The Astrophysical Journal. 325: 320. Bibcode:1988ApJ...325..320O. doi:10.1086/166006.
  14. ↑ "Redirecting to Google Groups".
  15. ↑ "University of Wyoming Infrared Observatory".
  16. ↑ "Bio - Dr. Harley a Thronson". Archived from the original on September 6, 2015.
  17. ↑ Odenwald, S.; Shivanandan, K.; Thronson, H. A. Jr. (1992). "Astronomical observations at 10 and 20 microns with the NRL Infrared Camera". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 104: 127. Bibcode:1992PASP..104..127O. doi:10.1086/132968.
  18. ↑ Odenwald, Sten; Newmark, Jeffrey; Smoot, George (1998). "A Study of External Galaxies Detected by theCOBEDiffuse Infrared Background Experiment". The Astrophysical Journal. 500 (2): 554–568. arXiv: astro-ph/9610238 . Bibcode:1998ApJ...500..554O. doi:10.1086/305737. S2CID   18799050 – via ResearchGate.
  19. ↑ Kashlinsky, A.; Mather, J. C.; Odenwald, S. (1997). "Limits on the cosmic infrared background from clustering in COBE/DIRBE maps". Diffuse Infrared Radiation and the Irts. 124: 329. arXiv: astro-ph/9701216 . Bibcode:1997ASPC..124..329K.
  20. ↑ Kashlinsky, A.; Odenwald, S. (2000). "Clustering of the Diffuse Infrared Light from the COBE DIRBE Maps. III. Power Spectrum Analysis and Excess Isotropic Component of Fluctuations". The Astrophysical Journal. 528 (1): 74. arXiv: astro-ph/9908304 . Bibcode:2000ApJ...528...74K. doi:10.1086/308172. S2CID   14728556.
  21. ↑ "Bracing the Satellite Infrastructure for a Solar Superstorm". Scientific American .
  22. ↑ Odenwald, Sten F. (2007). "Forecasting the impact of an 1859-caliber superstorm on geosynchronous Earth-orbiting satellites: Transponder resources". Space Weather. 5 (6): n/a. Bibcode:2007SpWea...5.6002O. doi: 10.1029/2006SW000262 .
  23. ↑ "The Astronomy Cafe | Sten's Space Blog".
  24. ↑ "The Human Impacts of Solar Storms and Space Weather". Archived from the original on October 27, 2015. Retrieved November 2, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Welcome to Space Math @ NASA !".
  26. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (1998). The Astronomy Cafe . San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. ISBN   0-7167-3278-5.
  27. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (2001). The 23rd Cycle. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN   0-231-12078-8.
  28. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (2002). Patterns in the Void. Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN   0-8133-3938-3.
  29. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (2002). Concepts in Space Science. ISRO: Universities Press. ISBN   978-81-7371-410-8.
  30. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (2003). Back to Astronomy Cafe. Boulder: Westview Press. ISBN   0-8133-4166-3.
  31. ↑ Elrod, P. (2004). Stepping through the Stargate: Science, Archaeology and the Military in Stargate Sg1. City: Benbella Books. ISBN   1-932100-32-6.
  32. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (2008). Space Storms and Radiation: Causes and Effects. New York: Elsever Press. ISBN   978-0-521-76051-5.
  33. ↑ Shavivina, Larisa (2012). NASA Press Releases: Exploring the mathematics behind the science. New York: Taylor & Francis/Routledge. ISBN   978-0-08-044198-6.
  34. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (2019). A Degree in a Book: Cosmology. London: Arcturus Publishing. ISBN   978-1-78888-755-7.
  35. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (2019). Knowledge in a Nutshell: Astrophysics. London: Arcturus Publishing. ISBN   978-1-78950-220-6.
  36. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (2020). Knowledge in a Nutshell: Quantum Physics. London: Arcturus Publishing. ISBN   978-1-78950-583-2.
  37. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (January 3, 2015). Solar Storms: 2000 Years of Human Calamity. ISBN   978-1-5059-4146-3.
  38. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (March 30, 2015). Exploring Quantum Space: The Mystery of Space. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   978-1-5060-8424-4.
  39. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (May 12, 2015). Interstellar Travel: An Astronomer's Guide. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   978-1-5120-5627-3.
  40. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (August 18, 2015). Interplanetary Travel: An Astronomer's Guide. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   978-1-5169-6293-8.
  41. ↑ Odenwald, Sten (August 12, 2015). Eternity: A User's Guide. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   978-1-5075-8825-3.
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