Jaan Einasto
Jaan Einasto | |
|---|---|
 Jaan Einasto with his Marcel Grossmann Award, 2009 | |
| Born | Jaan Eisenschmidt 23 February 1929 |
| Alma mater | University of Tartu (Ph.D., 1955) |
| Known for | Pioneer in the branch of astronomy known as near-field cosmology[2] |
| Awards | Estonia National Science Award (1982, 1998, 2003, 2007) Marcel Grossmann Award (2009) Ambartsumian International Prize (2012) Gruber Prize in Cosmology[1] (2014) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cosmology |
Jaan Einasto (born 23 February 1929) is an Estonian astrophysicist and one of the discoverers of the large-scale structure of the Universe.[3]
Family and early life
[edit]Born Jaan Eisenschmidt in Tartu, the name "Einasto" is an anagram of "Estonia" (it was chosen by his patriotic father in the 1930s to replace the family's German name).[4]
Einasto married and had 3 children, 2 daughters and the youngest, a son. His daughter, Maret, is also an astrophysicist, who collaborates with her father.[5]
Education and career
[edit]He attended the University of Tartu, where he received the Ph.D. equivalent in 1955 and a senior research doctorate in 1972. From 1952, he has worked as a scientist at the Tartu Observatory (1977–1998) Head of the Department of Cosmology; from 1992–1995, he was Professor of Cosmology at the University of Tartu. For a long time, he was Head of the Division of Astronomy and Physics of the Estonian Academy of Sciences in Tallinn. Einasto is a member of the Academia Europaea, the European Astronomical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society; he has received three Estonian National Science Awards.
- 1947 Tartu Secondary School No. 1
- 1952 University of Tartu
- 1955 Cand.Sc. in physics and mathematics
- 1972 D.Sc. in physics and mathematics
- 1992 Professor
Since 1991 he is member of Academia Europaea. Since 1994 he is member of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In 1974, in a seminal work with Kaasik and Saar at the Tartu Observatory, Einasto argued that "it is necessary to adopt an alternative hypothesis: that the clusters of galaxies are stabilised by hidden matter."[6] This was a key paper in recognizing that a hidden matter, i.e., dark matter, could explain observational anomalies in astronomy.[7][8]
Einasto showed in 1977 at a Symposium in Tallinn (Estonia) that the universe has a cell structure, in which the observed matter surrounds huge empty voids.[9]
Awards, honours, legacy
[edit]The asteroid 11577 Einasto, discovered in 1994, is named in his honour.
The Einasto Supercluster, a galaxy supercluster discovered in 2024, is named in his honour.[10]
See also
[edit]- Einasto profile
- Vera Rubin - her discovery of "flat rotation curves" is the most direct and robust evidence of dark matter
References
[edit]- ^ Tamme, Virge (2014-06-11). "Jaan Einasto received the Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize". ut.ee. University of Tartu. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
- ^ "Jaan Einasto". Physics Today (2): 9316. 23 Feb 2017. Bibcode:2017PhT..2017b9316.. doi:10.1063/PT.5.031422.
- ^ "Jaan Einasto". Physics Today (2): 9316. 2017. Bibcode:2017PhT..2017b9316.. doi:10.1063/PT.5.031422.
- ^ Einasto, Jaan (2013). Dark Matter and Cosmic Web Story. World Scientific Publishing. ISBN 978-981-4551-05-2.
In the 1930s [the] Estonian government started a campaign to change German names to Estonian ones. So our family name was also changed. My father was a real patriot of Estonia, so he invented the name "Einasto", which is a permutation of "Estonia". The name was patented, so nobody else can have this name. In this respect our family name is unique.
- ^ Jaan Einasto (11 May 2018). "Cosmology Paradigm Changes" (PDF). Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 56 (published September 2018): 1–39. Bibcode:2018ARA&A..56....1E. doi:10.1146/annurev-astro-081817-051748.
- ^ EINASTO, JAAN; KAASIK, ANTS; SAAR, ENN (26 July 1974). "Dynamic evidence on massive coronas of galaxies". Nature. 250 (5464): 309–310. Bibcode:1974Natur.250..309E. doi:10.1038/250309a0. S2CID 4293391.
- ^ de Swart, Jaco (1 August 2024). "Five decades of missing mass". Physics Today. 77: 34–43. doi:10.1063/pt.ozhk.lfeb.
- ^ de Swart, Jaco; Bertone, Gianfranco; van Dongen, Jeroen (28 February 2017). "How Dark Matter Came to Matter". Nature Astronomy. 1 (3): 0059. arXiv:1703.00013. Bibcode:2017NatAs...1E..59D. doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0059. S2CID 119092226.
- ^ Joever, Mihkel; Einasto, Jaan (1978). "Has the universe the cell structure?". The Large Scale Structure of the Universe; Proceedings of the Symposium, Tallin, Estonian SSR. International Astronomical Union: Symposium no. 79, Reidel: https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1978IAUS...79..241J.
- ^ Robert Lea (20 March 2024). "Scientists find galaxy supercluster as massive as 26 quadrillion suns". SPACE.com. Yahoo! News. 26-150001305.
External links
[edit]- Jaan Einasto page at the Tõravere Observatory
| International | |
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- 1929 births
- Cosmologists
- Living people
- Estonian astrophysicists
- Estonian astronomers
- 20th-century Estonian physicists
- Members of Academia Europaea
- Members of the Estonian Academy of Sciences
- Recipients of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, 2nd Class
- University of Tartu alumni
- Hugo Treffner Gymnasium alumni
- Scientists from Tartu
- Estonian scientist stubs
- European astronomer stubs