Astronomy Biography: Kip Thorne

Kip Stephen Thorne is an American theoretical physicist. Kip was born on June 1 of 1940 in Logan Utah. His father was Wynne Thorne his mother was Alison C. Thorne. Both his parents were professors at Utah State University, teaching Soil Chemistry and Economics respectively. Naturally, the environment he was raised in was an academic one, and obviously shaped his career, as it did his 4 other siblings, two of which also became professors.

Kip received a B.S. from Caltech and a Ph.D. from Princeton, before returning to Caltech to become one of the youngest professors in the history of the college. He pursued the path of becoming a theoretical physics professor, and even became the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics in 1991. Apparently he is very enthusiastic about the material he teaches, for the sources indicate he becomes very excitable while teaching. Kip specialized in research on black holes, worm holes, relativity, and gravitational radiation.

Kip is responsible for teaching and mentoring over 50 astrophysicists in his teaching career. His research is primarily focused on gravitational and astro-physics. This field includes black holes and gravitational waves. Kip is thought to be one of the leading experts on gravitational waves. He created LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory), which measures fluctuations in distance from two static points, which would be direct evidence of gravitational waves.

Kip also studies wormholes, and believes that they can be used to achieve time travel. However, he also proved it would be impossible to travel backwards through time, since that a paradox caused by objects traveling through time would be impossible.

Zooniverse 4.3: Old Weather (Again)

Recently I have continued working on Weather Reports of the HMS Acacia. I'm currently working my way up in the "ranks", and am close to another promotion! It's pretty motivating, knowing that you're being "rewarded" for completing these reports!

APOD 4.5: The Antenne AND Zooniverse

This is really cool, and tied to what I did in Zooniverse this week. Here we have a picture of Galaxies colliding, galaxies NGC 4038 and 4039. The galaxies can be found in the constellation Corvus, the Crow. When one thinks of a collision, people thing explosions, crashing, wrecking, etc. However, in a Galactic Collision, they just merge through each other. As if sliding ones hands together, the parts of the galaxies mesh, and form one large galaxies. The gravitational influences of the Galaxies on each other, they stretch and warp.

This APOD also matches with my Zooniverse this week, which was Galaxies colliding. It was the first project I did, but I returned to it to mash some galaxies again. It was fun. I simulated atleast 100 galaxy simulations, and modified them.

APOD 4.4: Elephant's Trunk Nebula

 3000 light years away, The Elephant's trunk nebula is the visible evidence of a new star at the heart of this dark giant. A dark globule is a typical place for stars to form, being made up of mostly Hydrogen and Helium. Dark globules are also extremely cold, and are still a topic of an immense amount of research. The density of the nebulae is unknown, and some astronomers theorize that parts of the globules may be near solid, and it might be possible to stand on them (assuming there was gravity).

APOD 4.3: Yuri's Planet

Approximately 50 Years Ago..well, 50 years from when this APOD was posted on the NASA site...the Soviet Russian "cosmonaut" Yuri Alexseyevich Gagarin was shot into space about the spacecraft Vostok 1. He achieved altitude of 200 miles above sea level, and circled once around the entire planet.

An approximate view of what Yuri would have seen.

His competition, the US astronaut Alan Shepard,  wasn't launched until about a month later. When not pursuing pleasure flying through space, Yuri loved to practice flying Soviet Jets and dying while piloting said jets. In 1968, Yuri's MIG jet crashed in a training flight. Not combat, but in a training flight. They then took what was left of him and stored it in the Kremlin Wall. Because what else do you do with your dead heros?

The image itself was taken in 2003, aboard the International Space Station.

Zooniverse 4.2: Old Weather

This week I worked on Zooniverse's Old Weather Project, which actually was a lot more interesting than it sounded. I followed the HMS Acacia, which was a British Sloop from WWI as it traveled around the coast just outside the Straits of Gibraltar, and eventually proceeded through them. It really was interesting, decoding the genuine naval logs from the various days. What was even more interesting was the deviations on some of the logs from the regulations...even though it sometimes made my job harder. It was all in good fun though!

Observations 4.1: Trash Night

So I was taking out the trash...but then I looked up! The winter sky really is fantastic. I easily identified my personal "Big Four" of the sky: Orion, Gemini, Taurus, and Auriga. Those four always seem to stand out to me, being right there in the center of the sky. Canis Major was there too of course, but I never really seem to notice it as much...even though it has the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, in it. Some of the other stars I identified were Rigel, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Alnilam, Alnitak, Mintaka, Castor, Pollux, Aldebaran, Capella, and "The Kids". I also picked out the Pleiades star cluster, and easy spot.