Bonnard J. Teegarden

Bonnard J. Teegarden

Bonnard John Teegarden is an American astrophysicist formerly with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, now retired. He spent most of his career studying cosmic gamma rays and is best known to the public for leading the team that discovered Teegarden's star in 2003.[1]

Education

Teegarden graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven High School in Rumson, New Jersey in 1958.[2] He earned a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962[3] and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Maryland in 1967. His thesis was "A Study of Low Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays"[4] and his advisor was Frank B. McDonald.

Career

The discovery of Teegarden's star

The discovery of Teegarden's star came as somewhat of a surprise as no close-by stars had been discovered for many decades. Teegarden's team found this star in data taken years earlier by an unrelated program searching for near Earth asteroids.[1] The real excitement was from the initial measurements the team made for the parallax of this star. These initial measurements indicated that the star may be very close at a distance of about seven light years. This would have made it the third closest star system. This excitement resulted in numerous popular press articles and public interest.[5] In the years since the discovery was announced the measured distances gradually increased. The accepted distance is now more than twelve light years and public interest has faded somewhat, but not before Teegarden was rewarded with the name of this newly discovered star, although other designations are sometimes used as well.[6]

Other work

Teegarden was a cosmic ray researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for all of his professional life. He was co-investigator on the Pioneer Jupiter cosmic ray experiments[7] and later an investigator on the space based INTEGRAL[8] and BATSE experiments.[9] He was also involved in studies of stellar nucleosynthesis.[10] He is a prolific researcher with 200 articles listed in SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System.[11]

Personal life

After retiring from NASA Teegarden and his wife moved to Annapolis, Maryland. He now works wood, and sails. He has developed special software for making decorative wooden bowls.[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Teegarden, B. J.; Pravdo; Hicks; Lawrence; Shaklan; Covey; Fraser; Hawley; McGlynn; Reid (May 20, 2003). "Discovery of a New Nearby Star" (PDF). The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 589 (1): L51–L53. Bibcode:2003ApJ...589L..51T. arXiv:astro-ph/0302206 Freely accessible. doi:10.1086/375803.
  2. ↑ "Bonnard Teegarden". Classmates.com. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  3. ↑ "Alumni Friends of the MIT Department of Physics, July 1, 2000 – May 31, 2001" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 2, 2006. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  4. ↑ Bonnard John Teegarden (1967-01-09). "Thesis: A Study of Low Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays From 1961 to 1965" (PDF). NASA.
  5. ↑ "Star Search Finds Neighborly Red Dwarf". Space.com. 2003-05-20.
  6. ↑ George Gatewood, Louis Coban (January 2009). "Allegheny Observatory Parallaxes for Late M Dwarfs and White Dwarfs". The Astronomical Journal. 137 (1): 402–405. Bibcode:2009AJ....137..402G. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/137/1/402.
  7. ↑ "SP-349/396 - PIONEER ODYSSEY - Appendix 3 - The Pioneer Jupiter Team - Cosmic Ray Energy Spectra Experiment". NASA. 1974-08-01. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
  8. ↑ Teegarden, B. J.; Sturner, S. J. (April 1999). "INTEGRAL Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts". American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #4, #17.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 31: 717. Bibcode:1999HEAD....4.1701T.
  9. ↑ Schaefer, B.E.; Teegarden, Bonnard J.; Fantasia, Stephan F.; Palmer, David; Cline, Thomas L.; Matteson, James L.; Band, David L.; Ford, Lyle A.; et al. (1994). "BATSE spectroscopy catalog of bright gamma-ray bursts". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (PDF). 92 (1): 285–310. Bibcode:1994ApJS...92..285S. doi:10.1086/191969.
  10. ↑ Naya, Juan E.; Barthelmy, Scott D.; Bartlett, Lyle M.; Gehrels, Neil; Parsons, Ann; Teegarden, Bonnard J.; Tueller, Jack; Leventhal, Marvin (1 June 1998). "Gamma-Ray Limits on Galactic 60Fe Nucleosynthesis and Implications on the Origin of the 26Al Emission" (PDF). The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 499 (2): L169–L173. Bibcode:1998ApJ...499L.169N. arXiv:astro-ph/9804074 Freely accessible. doi:10.1086/311373.
  11. ↑ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-basic_connect?qsearch=teegarden%2C+b&version=1
  12. ↑ "Teegarden Turnings". Archived from the original on 2011-01-28. Retrieved 2009-09-05.
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