Biography Sources

https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rkirshner/CV.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15165371
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rkirshner/

Robert Kirshner

Kirshner was born on August 15, 1949. he received his first university level education at Harvard University, graduating in 1970. From there he went on to get a P.h.D in Astronomy at Caltech. He became a postdoc at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, in addition to serving on the faculty at the University of Michigan for nine years. In 1986, he returned to Harvard to become a faculty member in the Astronomy Department. He served as Chairman of the Department from 1990 to 1997. In his time, Kirshner has written and published over 200 research papers, most of which deal with supernovae and the size and shape of the universe.  His most significant discovery was accomplished with the "High-Z Supernova Team". In this discovery the team found concrete evidence for the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. This was deemed so important that it was given the title of "Science Breakthrough of the Year for 1998" by Science Magazine. Several members of the team would be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2008. This discovery drastically changed how we view the universe, and is considered to be one of the most important astronomical discoveries of the last 20 years. In his later career, Kirshner became the President of the American Astronomical Society from 2004-2008. Over the past six years he has given dozens of important lectures all over the world, and continues to contribute to the Astronomical field of science.

APOD 4.7

This image shows a highly enhanced view of the common constellation Scorpius. The tail of the cosmic scorpion lies directly in the plane of the milky way, which looks quite spectacular in an image with a long exposure time. One might notice the seeming overabundance of red in the picture; this is due to the red "filter" used by the camera to better detect and display traces of hydrogen. The seemingly bright star located above the head of the scorpion is actually the planet Jupiter, making for a remarkably breathtaking photograph

APOD 4.6

In 2006, an unneeded space suit filled with old clothes was jettisoned by the crew of the ISS into orbit around Earth. The space suit was outfitted with a small and weak radio transmitter so the crew could track it's orbit around the planet. The suit stayed in orbit for a few weeks until it's trajectory decayed and it burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. The picture shown here was taken shortly after the release of the suit, and looks quite breathtaking with the Earth looming in from the right side of the frame.

APOD 4.5

This weeks APOD is the enormous galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102-4915, more colloquially known as El Gordo. This name, which means "the big one" in spanish, accurately reflects the nature of the object, as it is thought to possibly be one of the largest celestial objects known. It spans over 7 million lightyears, and contains mass equal to over a million billion suns. This particular image is a composite image that is comprised of several images taken in different wavelengths. The different colors represent different gasses, with the exception of the blue. The blue, interestingly enough, represents what scientists believe to be concentrations of dark matter.

APOD 4.4

Known as the Elephants Trunk Nebula, this dark and menacing dust nebula resides in IC 1396. Many of the stars shown in the picture are bright, and young. Many of them exude a great deal of energy, so much so in fact that the dark cloud is slowly being dispersed. Waves of energy and particles streaming off of these stars is slowly blasting away all the dust that makes up the nebula. This particular cloud is part of a much larger nebula, that faintly spans nearly 10 full moons in the night sky.

APOD 4.3

The picture shown above is easily identifiable as Mars, the red planet made famous by it's rusty red appearance. Mars just past it's exact point of opposition 3 days ago on April 8th, when this picture was taken. What is interesting about Mars is that due to the elliptic nature of it's orbit, it's point of closest approach with the Earth is actually 3 more days from now, on the 14th. This night is also significant because the moon will be going through a complete lunar eclipse, which will make for a fantastic night of stargazing.