Jane Luu
Jane Luu (a.k.a. Jane X. Luu) is a Vietnamese American astronomer.
Early life
Luu was born in 1963 in South Vietnam to a father who worked as a translator for the U.S. Army. Her father taught her French as a child, beginning her lifelong love of languages.
Luu immigrated to the United States as a refugee in 1975, when the South Vietnamese government fell. She and her family settled in Kentucky, where she had relatives. A visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory inspired her to study astronomy.[1] She attended Stanford University, receiving her bachelor's degree in 1984.[2]
Work as a graduate student and co-discovery of the Kuiper Belt
As a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley[3] and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she worked with David C. Jewitt to discover the Kuiper Belt.[1] In 1992, after five years of observation, they found the first known Kuiper Belt object, using the University of Hawaii's 2.2 meter telescope on Mauna Kea.[4] This object is (15760) 1992 QB1, which she and Jewitt nicknamed "Smiley".[2] The American Astronomical Society awarded Luu the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1991. In 1992, Luu received a Hubble Fellowship from the University of California, Berkeley. The asteroid 5430 Luu is named in her honor.[5]
Professional life
After receiving her doctorate, Luu worked as a professor at Harvard University. [2] Luu also served as a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands.[1] Following her time in Europe, Luu returned to the United States and works on instrumentation as a technical staff member at Lincoln Laboratory at MIT.
In December 2004, Luu and Jewitt reported the discovery of crystalline water ice on Quaoar, which was at the time the largest known Kuiper Belt object. They also found indications of ammonia hydrate. Their report theorized that the ice likely formed underground, becoming exposed after a collision with another Kuiper Belt object sometime in the last few million years.[6]
Asteroids co-discovered by Luu
Luu has co-discovered a number of asteroids:
- 10370 Hylonome
- (15760) 1992 QB1
- (15809) 1994 JS
- (15836) 1995 DA2
- (15874) 1996 TL66
- (15875) 1996 TP66
- (19308) 1996 TO66
- (20161) 1996 TR66
- (24952) 1997 QJ4
- (24978) 1998 HJ151
- (26375) 1999 DE9
- (33001) 1997 CU29
- (58534) 1997 CQ29
- (59358) 1999 CL158
- (60608) 2000 EE173
- 66652 Borasisi
- (79360) 1997 CS29
- (79969) 1999 CP133
- (79978) 1999 CC158
- (79983) 1999 DF9
Personal life
Luu enjoys traveling, and has worked for Save the Children in Nepal. She enjoys a variety of outdoor activities and plays the cello. She met her husband, Ronnie Hoogerwerf, who is also an astronomer, while in Leiden.[1]
External links
- Crystalline Ice on Kuiper Belt Object (50000) Quaoar (article co-written with David Jewitt, published in December 9, 2004 issue of Nature)
- The Shape Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects (paper co-written with Pedro Lacerda, June 2003)
- NASA Astrophysics Data System publication listing
- Comet Impact on McMaster (presentation summary, November 2001)
- Accretion in the Early Kuiper Belt I. Coagulation and Velocity Evolution (paper co-written with Scott J. Kenyon, published in May 1998 Astronomical Journal)
- Optical and Infrared Reflectance Spectrum of Kuiper Belt Object 1996 TL66 (paper co-written with D.C. Jewitt, January 1998)
References
- ^ a b c d Jane Luu
- ^ a b c May/June 1998 Feature Alum, Jane Luu, '84
- ^ http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/users/wisdom/extrasolar/Brown.pdf
- ^ University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope - Public Information
- ^ Marquis Who's Who. 2006.
- ^ Chang, Kenneth (December 9, 2004). "Astronomers Entertain Visions of Icy Volcanoes in Faraway Places". The New York Times. pp. A33.
- Luu, Jane (2000). "Water ice in 2060 Chiron and its implications for Centaurs and Kuiper Belt objects". Astrophysical Journal. 531: L151–L154. doi:10.1086/312536.
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- Luu, Jane (1998). "Deep Imaging of the Kuiper Belt with the Keck 10-Meter Telescope". Astrophysical Journal. 502: L91–L94. doi:10.1086/311490.
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- Luu, Jane (1997). "A New Dynamical Class of Object in the Outer Solar System". Nature. 387: 573. doi:10.1038/42413.
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- Luu, Jane (1996). "Color Diversity among the Centaurs and Kuiper Belt Objects". Astronomical Journal. 112: 2310–2318. doi:10.1086/118184.
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- Bartusiak, Marcia (February 1996). "The Remarkable Odyssey of Jane Luu". Astronomy: 46.
- Luu, Jane (1992). "High Resolution Surface Brightness Profiles of Near-Earth Asteroids". Icarus. 97: 276–287. doi:10.1016/0019-1035(92)90134-S.
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- Luu, Jane (1991). "CCD Photometry and Spectroscopy of Outer Jovian Satellites". Astronomical Journal. 102: 1213–1225. doi:10.1086/115949.