Steven Kilston

Last updated

Steven D. Kilston (born 1944) is an American astronomer.

Kilston received a B.A. from Harvard University in 1965 and a Ph.D. from UCLA in 1973. [1] He was Carl Sagan's first undergraduate research student at Harvard, co-authoring "A Search for Life on Earth at Kilometer Resolution". [2] [3] Kilston worked for the Hughes Aircraft Company, the Lockheed Corporation, and Ball Aerospace. He was the principal designer of the Ikonos satellite. [2] [4]

In 1966, he discovered the Comet Kilston at Lick Observatory. [5] [6]

In 1983, Kilston published a paper in Nature with Leon Knopoff, suggesting that earthquakes were linked to an "alignment of the sun and moon on opposite sides of the Earth that tugged the opposite sides of faults in opposing directions". [7] [8] They successfully predicted the 1987 Superstition Hills earthquakes. [7]

Kilston has envisioned a "Plausible Path to the Stars", in which a spaceship carrying a million inhabitants could reach the few dozen nearest stars in 10,000 years' time. [9]

Related Research Articles

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other planets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Drake</span> American astronomer and astrophysicist (1930–2022)

Frank Donald Drake was an American astrophysicist and astrobiologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowell Observatory</span> Astronomical observatory and historic landmark in Arizona, US

Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. Lowell Observatory was established in 1894, placing it among the oldest observatories in the United States, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. In 2011, the Observatory was named one of "The World's 100 Most Important Places" by Time Magazine. It was at the Lowell Observatory that the dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spitzer Space Telescope</span> Infrared space telescope (2003–2020)

The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003, that was deactivated when operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicated to infrared astronomy, following IRAS (1983) and ISO (1995–1998). It was the first spacecraft to use an Earth-trailing orbit, later used by the Kepler planet-finder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horsehead Nebula</span> Dark nebula in the constellation Orion

The Horsehead Nebula is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion molecular cloud complex. It appears within the southern region of the dense dust cloud known as Lynds 1630, along the edge of the much larger, active star-forming H II region called IC 434.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David C. Jewitt</span> British-American astronomer (born 1958)

David Clifford Jewitt is a British-American astronomer who studies the Solar System, especially its minor bodies. He is based at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is a Member of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, the Director of the Institute for Planets and Exoplanets, Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. He is best known for being the first person to discover a body beyond Pluto and Charon in the Kuiper belt.

Takeshi Urata was a Japanese astronomer. He was a prolific discoverer of asteroids, observing at Nihondaira Observatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oak Ridge Observatory</span> Observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts

The Oak Ridge Observatory, also known as the George R. Agassiz Station, is located at 42 Pinnacle Road, Harvard, Massachusetts. It was operated by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian as a facility of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) from 1933 until August 19, 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siding Spring Observatory</span> Astronomic observatory in New South Wales, Australia

Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a collection of other telescopes owned by the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, and other institutions. The observatory is situated 1,165 metres (3,822 ft) above sea level in the Warrumbungle National Park on Mount Woorat, also known as Siding Spring Mountain. Siding Spring Observatory is owned by the Australian National University (ANU) and is part of the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories research school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wow! signal</span> 1977 narrowband radio signal from SETI

The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected on August 15, 1977, by Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope in the United States, then used to support the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The signal appeared to come from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius and bore expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nibiru cataclysm</span> Apocalyptic hoax

The Nibiru cataclysm is a supposed disastrous encounter between Earth and a large planetary object that certain groups believed would take place in the early 21st century. Believers in this doomsday event usually refer to this object as Nibiru or Planet X. The idea was first put forward in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, founder of the website ZetaTalk. Lieder claims she is a contactee with the ability to receive messages from extraterrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system through an implant in her brain. She states that she was chosen to warn mankind that the object would sweep through the inner Solar System in May 2003 causing Earth to undergo a physical pole shift that would destroy most of humanity.

Leuschner Observatory, originally called the Students' Observatory, is an observatory jointly operated by the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. The observatory was built in 1886 on the Berkeley campus. For many years, it was directed by Armin Otto Leuschner, for whom the observatory was renamed in 1951. In 1965, it was relocated to its present home in Lafayette, California, approximately 10 miles (16 km) east of the Berkeley campus. In 2012, the physics and astronomy department of San Francisco State University became a partner.

This is a timeline of astronomy. It covers ancient, medieval, Renaissance-era, and finally modern astronomy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marseille Observatory</span> Astronomical observatory located in Marseille, France

Marseille Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in Marseille, France, with a history that goes back to the early 18th century. In its 1877 incarnation, it was the discovery site of a group of galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet, discovered by its director Édouard Stephan. Marseille Observatory is now run as a joint research unit by Aix-Marseille University and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Leon Knopoff was an American geophysicist and musicologist. He received his education at Caltech, graduating in 1949 with a PhD in physics, and came to UCLA the following year. He served on the UCLA faculty for 60 years. His research interests spanned a wide variety of fields and included the physics and statistics of earthquakes, earthquake prediction, the interior structure of the Earth, plate tectonics, pattern recognition, non-linear earthquake dynamics and several other areas of solid Earth geophysics. He also made contributions to the fields of musical perception and archaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vainu Bappu</span> Indian astronomer

Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu was an Indian astronomer and president of the International Astronomical Union. Bappu helped to establish several astronomical institutions in India, including the Vainu Bappu Observatory which is named after him, and he also contributed to the establishment of the modern Indian Institute of Astrophysics. In 1957, he discovered the Wilson–Bappu effect jointly with American astronomer Olin Chaddock Wilson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronomical Society of New South Wales</span> Amateur astronomy club in the state of New South Wales, Australia

The Astronomical Society of New South Wales (ASNSW) is an amateur astronomy club in the state of New South Wales, Australia, founded in 1954.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breakthrough Listen</span> Initiative to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life

Breakthrough Listen is a project to search for intelligent extraterrestrial communications in the Universe. With $100 million in funding and thousands of hours of dedicated telescope time on state-of-the-art facilities, it is the most comprehensive search for alien communications to date. The project began in January 2016, and is expected to continue for 10 years. It is a component of Yuri Milner's Breakthrough Initiatives program. The science program for Breakthrough Listen is based at Berkeley SETI Research Center, located in the Astronomy Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabetha S. Boyajian</span> American astronomer

Tabetha "Tabby" Suzanne Boyajian is an American astronomer and associate professor at Louisiana State University. She works in of stellar interferometry, stellar spectroscopy, exoplanet research, and high angular resolution astronomy, all particularly at optical and infrared wavelengths. Boyajian was the lead author of the September 2015 paper "Where's the Flux?", which investigated the highly unusual light curve of KIC 8462852; the star is colloquially known as Tabby's Star in her honor.

References

  1. "Steve Kilston". SETI Institute. Archived from the original on 9 June 2008. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Next-Generation Space Telescope (NGST) & Space-Based Optical SETI". Columbus Optical SETI Observatory. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  3. Wood, Elizabeth A. (1975). Science from Your Airplane Window. Courier Corporation. p. 183. ISBN   978-0-486-23205-8 . Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  4. "All About Eclipses with Steve Kilston". City of Cottage Grove, Oregon . Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  5. Brown, P. L. (1966). "Observations of new Comet Kilston 1966b". The Astronomer. 3: D5. Bibcode:1966Astr....3D...5B . Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  6. Kramer, Joel R. (12 August 1966). "Recent Graduate Discovers Comet". The Harvard Crimson . Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  7. 1 2 Maugh, Thomas H. (3 February 2011). "Leon Knopoff dies at 85; UCLA scientist who applied computer modeling in earthquake research". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  8. Sullivan, Walter (8 November 1983). "A Year of Earthquakes: Is There a Worldwide Link?". New York Times . Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  9. Goldsmith, Donald (27 January 2015). "Expert Voices Does Humanity's Destiny Lie in Interstellar Space Travel?". Space.com . Retrieved 15 June 2024.