Halton Arp

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Halton Arp in London, Oct 2000
Halton Arp in London, Oct 2000

Halton Christian Arp is an American astronomer. He was born March 21, 1927 in New York City. His bachelor's degree was awarded by Harvard (1949), and his Ph.D. from Caltech (1953). Afterwards he became a Fellow of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1953, performing research at the Mount Wilson Observatory and Palomar Observatory. Arp became a Research Assistant at Indiana University in 1955 and subsequently in 1957 became a staff member at Palomar Observatory, where he worked for 29 years. In 1983 he joined the staff of the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

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[edit] Quasars and redshifts

Arp's hypothesis is that quasars or quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are local objects ejected from the core of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The theory was originally proposed in the 1960s as an alternative to Maarten Schmidt's explanation for QSOs, which stated that they were very distant galaxies that appeared to be highly redshifted because of the expansion of the universe.[1] The implication of the hypothesis was that most of the observed redshift of these QSOs must have a non-cosmological or "intrinsic" origin. Arp has suggested that the QSO emission may instead be ejecta from active galactic nuclei. Nearby galaxies with both strong radio emission and peculiar morphologies, particularly M87 and Centaurus A, appeared to support Arp's hypothesis.[2] In his books, Arp has provided his reasons for believing that the Big Bang theory itself is wrong, citing his research into QSOs. Instead, Arp supports the redshift quantization theory for describing the redshifts of galaxies.[3]

Since Arp originally proposed his theories in the 1960s, however, telescopes and astronomical instrumentation have advanced greatly; the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, multiple 8-10 meter telescopes (such as those at Keck Observatory) have become operational, and detectors such as CCDs are now more widely used. These new telescopes and new instrumentation have been used to examine QSOs further. QSOs are now generally accepted to be very distant galaxies with high redshifts. Moreover, many objects that are high-redshift counterparts to normal nearby galaxies have been identified in many imaging surveys, most notably the Hubble Deep Field.[4] Moreover, the spectra of the high-redshift galaxies, as seen from X-ray to radio wavelengths, match the spectra of nearby galaxies (particularly galaxies with high levels of star formation activity but also galaxies with normal or extinguished star formation activity) when corrected for redshift effects.[5][6][7]

Nonetheless, Arp has not wavered from his stand against the Big Bang and still publishes articles stating his contrary view in both popular and scientific literature, frequently collaborating with Geoffrey Burbidge and Margaret Burbidge.[8]

[edit] The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies

Arp has also compiled a catalog of unusual galaxies titled Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which was first published in 1966[9]. Arp realized that astronomers understood little about how galaxies change over time, which led him to work on this project. This atlas was intended to provide images that would give astronomers data from which they could study the evolution of galaxies. Arp later used the atlas as evidence in his debate on QSOs.

Astronomers today recognize that Arp developed an excellent atlas of interacting and merging galaxies. Many objects in the atlas are primarily referred to by their Arp number. Ironically, many of these objects (particularly Arp 220) are also used as spectral templates for studying high-redshift galaxies.

[edit] Notable Honors and Awards

In 1960, Arp was awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society, a prize "normally awarded annually for a significant contribution to observational or theoretical astronomy during the five years preceding the award."[10]

And in the same year, Arp was awarded the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize for his address, "The Stellar Content of Galaxies" read before a joint session of the American Astronomical Society and AAAS Section D.[11]

In 1984, he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award.[12]

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Halton Arp, Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies, Interstellar Media (May 1, 1987) ISBN 0-941325-00-8
  • Halton Arp, Seeing Red, Aperion (August, 1998) ISBN 0-9683689-0-5
  • Halton Arp, Catalogue of Discordant Redshift Associations, Aperion (September 1, 2003) ISBN 0-9683689-9-9
  • G. Burbidge, E.M. Burbidge, H.C. Arp, W.M. Napier: Ultraluminous X-ray Sources, High Redshift QSOs and Active Galaxies. Preprint

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Schmidt Maarten (1963). "3C 273: a star-like object with large red-shift". Nature 197: 1040-1040. 
  2. ^ H. Arp (1967). "Peculiar Galaxies and Radio Sources". Astrophysical Journal 148: 321-366. 
  3. ^ Arp, Halton, "Additional members of the Local Group of galaxies and quantized redshifts within the two nearest groups" (1987) Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (ISSN 0250-6335), vol. 8, Sept. 1987, p. 241-255.
  4. ^ S. P. Driver, A. Fernandez-Soto, W. J. Couch, S. C. Odewahn, R. A. Windhorst, S. Phillips, K. Lanzetta, A. Yahil (1998). "Morphological Number Counts and Redshift Distributions to I<26 from the Hubble Deep Field: Implications for the Evolution of Ellipticals, Spirals, and Irregulars". Astrophysical Journal 496: L93-L96. 
  5. ^ W. J. Couch, R. S. Ellis, J. Godwin, D. Carter (1983). "Spectral energy distributions for galaxies in high redshift clusters. I - Methods and application to three clusters with Z = 0.22-0.31". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 205: 1287-1312. 
  6. ^ Postman, L. M. Lubin, J. B. Oke (1998). "A Study of Nine High-Redshift Clusters of Galaxies. II. Photometry, Spectra, and Ages of Clusters 0023+0423 and 1604+4304". Astronomical Journal 116: 560-583. 
  7. ^ R. S. Priddey, R. G. McMahon (2001). "The far-infrared-submillimetre spectral energy distribution of high-redshift quasars". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 324: L17-L22. 
  8. ^ Smithsonian/NASA ADS Custom Query Form. Results for "Arp, H". Retrieved on 2006-09-03.
  9. ^ H. Arp (1966). "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies". Astrophysical Journal Supplement 14: 1-20. 
  10. ^ Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy
  11. ^ About the AAAS: History & Archives
  12. ^ Juan Miguel Campanario and Brian Martin, "Challenging dominant physics paradigms" (2004) Journal of Scientific Exploration, vol. 18, no. 3, Fall 2004, pp. 421-438.
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