Aleksander Wolszczan

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Aleksander Wolszczan
Aleksander Wolszczan at Piwnice radio observatory
Born	April 29, 1946 Szczecinek, Poland
Nationality	Polish
Fields	Astronomer
Alma mater	Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Known for	Discovery of the first extrasolar planets and pulsar planets
Notable awards	Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize

Aleksander Wolszczan [alɛkˈsandɛr ˈvɔlʂt​͡ʂan] ( listen) (born April 29, 1946 in Szczecinek, Poland) is a Polish astronomer. He was the discoverer of the first extrasolar planets and pulsar planets.

Contents 1 Scientific career 2 Involvement with the security service 3 References 4 Notes 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Scientific career

Wolszczan was educated in Poland (MSc in 1969 and received his PhD in 1975 at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń), He moved in 1982 to the U.S. to work at Cornell and Princeton University. Later he became an astronomy professor at Pennsylvania State University. From 1994 to 2008 he was also a professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He is a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Working with Dale Frail, Wolszczan carried out astronomical observations from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico which led them to the discovery of the pulsar PSR B1257+12 in 1990. They showed in 1992 that the pulsar is orbited by two planets. Their orbits are 0.36 and 0.47 AU respectively. This was the first confirmed discovery of planets outside the Solar System (several hundred are known today).

In 1996, Wolszczan was awarded the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize by the American Astronomical Society, and in 2002, he was pictured on a Polish postage stamp. [1]

In 2003 Maciej Konacki and Wolszczan determined the orbital inclinations of the two pulsar planets, showing that the actual masses are approximately 3.9 and 4.3 Earth masses.

[edit] Involvement with the security service

On September 17, 2008 Wolszczan acknowledged earlier allegations that from 1973 until 1988 he had been a paid informer of the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Służba Bezpieczeństwa), the Communist secret police of the former People's Republic of Poland.^[1]

[edit] References

• Wolszczan, A., and D.A. Frail. A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR 1257+12. Nature 355(6356):145-7, January 9, 1992.
• Wolszczan, A. Confirmation of Earth-mass planets orbiting the millisecond pulsar PSR B1257+12. Science 264(5158):538-42, April 22, 1994.
• Konacki, M. and Wolszczan, A. Masses and Orbital Inclinations of Planets in the PSR B1257+12 System Astrophysical Journal, Volume 591, Issue 2, pp. L147-L150, 2003.
• Maciej Marosz "Gazeta Polska", September 17, 2008

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Aleksander Wolszczan

• Pulsar planet
• Extrasolar planet
• List of stars with confirmed extrasolar planets

[edit] External links

• Earth Sized Planets Confirmed
• Planet Orbiting a Giant Red Star Discovered with Hobby-Eberly Telescope

Persondata
NAME	Wolszczan, Aleksander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Polish Astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	April 29, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH	Szczecinek, Poland
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH