Donald Lynden-Bell
Encyclopedia
Donald Lynden-Bell CBE FRS (born April 5, 1935 in Dover
, Kent
) is an English
astrophysicist, best known for his theories that galaxies
contain massive black hole
s at their centre, and that such black holes are the principal source of energy in quasar
s. He was a co-recipient, with Maarten Schmidt, of the inaugural Kavli Prize for Astrophysics in 2008. Lynden-Bell has been the president of the Royal Astronomical Society. He currently works at the Institute of Astronomy
in Cambridge; he was the Institute's first director.
Educated at the University of Cambridge
, in 1962 he published research with Olin Eggen and Allan Sandage
arguing that our galaxy originated through the dynamic collapse of a single large gas cloud. In 1969 he published his theory that quasars are powered by massive black holes accreting material. From counting dead quasars, he deduced that most massive galaxies have black holes at their centres.
He was also a member of a group of astronomers known as the Seven Samurai which postulated the existence of the Great Attractor
, a huge, diffuse region of material around 250 million light-years away that results in the observed motion of our local galaxies.
His wife is the Cambridge Professor of Chemistry Ruth Lynden-Bell
.
His current research mainly focuses on astrophysical jets and general relativity.
Named after him
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
astrophysicist, best known for his theories that galaxies
Galaxy
A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The word galaxy is derived from the Greek galaxias , literally "milky", a...
contain massive black hole
Black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime from which nothing, not even light, can escape. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will deform spacetime to form a black hole. Around a black hole there is a mathematically defined surface called an event horizon that...
s at their centre, and that such black holes are the principal source of energy in quasar
Quasar
A quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...
s. He was a co-recipient, with Maarten Schmidt, of the inaugural Kavli Prize for Astrophysics in 2008. Lynden-Bell has been the president of the Royal Astronomical Society. He currently works at the Institute of Astronomy
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge
The Institute of Astronomy is the largest of the three astronomy departments in the University of Cambridge, and one of the largest astronomy sites in the UK...
in Cambridge; he was the Institute's first director.
Educated at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, in 1962 he published research with Olin Eggen and Allan Sandage
Allan Sandage
Allan Rex Sandage was an American astronomer. He was Staff Member Emeritus with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. He is best known for determining the first reasonably accurate value for the Hubble constant and the age of the universe.-Career:Sandage was one of the most...
arguing that our galaxy originated through the dynamic collapse of a single large gas cloud. In 1969 he published his theory that quasars are powered by massive black holes accreting material. From counting dead quasars, he deduced that most massive galaxies have black holes at their centres.
He was also a member of a group of astronomers known as the Seven Samurai which postulated the existence of the Great Attractor
Great Attractor
The Great Attractor is a gravity anomaly in intergalactic space within the range of the Centaurus Supercluster that reveals the existence of a localised concentration of mass equivalent to tens of thousands of Milky Ways, observable by its effect on the motion of galaxies and their associated...
, a huge, diffuse region of material around 250 million light-years away that results in the observed motion of our local galaxies.
His wife is the Cambridge Professor of Chemistry Ruth Lynden-Bell
Ruth Lynden-Bell
Ruth M. Lynden-Bell, FRS is a British computational chemist and an emeritus professor of Queen's University Belfast and the University of Cambridge....
.
Chronology
- 1953-1956: (undergraduate students) Mach's Principle; Relativity; Quantum mechanics; Statistical mechanics
- 1957-1960: MHD X type neutral points, Radio astronomy ; Integrals of motion in stellar dynamics & mechanics, separable systems ; Accretion disks, energy principle in axial symmetry; Spiral structure, galaxies
- 1960s: Formation of the Galaxy, its chemical evolution (ELS); Violent relaxation, negative specific heat, gravothermal catastrophe; Io and radio emission of Jupiter; Black holes in Galactic Nuclei; Magnetic accretion disks; Quasars.
- 1970s: Quasar luminosity and density function, the C- method in statistics; Accretion disks around TTauri stars; Relativistic self gravitating Mestel disks; self similar evolution of globular cluster core collapse
- 1980s: Energy principles in fluid mechanics; Isocirculational systems and Kelvin's theorem; Magellanic Stream and local group dynamics; Dark matter: large scale streaming motions and the galaxy distribution
- 1990s: Dipole in extragalactic light; Relativistic exact solutions; Mach's principle in general relativity; Newtonian mechanics without absolute space; Exact self similar solution in MHD; Negative specific heat in astronomy physics and chemistry; Exact N body solution in classical and Quantum mechanics; Ghosty streams in the Milky Way
- 2000s: Separability of motion in electromagnetic fields; Exact optics without coma or spherical aberration; The relativistic rotating charged disk and sphere; MHD jets from accretion disks
His current research mainly focuses on astrophysical jets and general relativity.
Honors
Awards- Eddington MedalEddington MedalThe Eddington Medal, named after Sir Arthur Eddington, is awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society nominally once every two years for investigations of outstanding merit in theoretical astrophysics.- Recipients :* 1953 Georges Lemaître...
(1984) - Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical SocietyGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society-History:In the early years, more than one medal was often awarded in a year, but by 1833 only one medal was being awarded per year. This caused a problem when Neptune was discovered in 1846, because many felt an award should jointly be made to John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier...
(1993) - Brouwer AwardBrouwer Award (Division on Dynamical Astronomy)The Dirk Brouwer Award, usually known as the Brouwer Award, is awarded annually by the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of dynamical astronomy...
of the American Astronomical SocietyAmerican Astronomical SocietyThe American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...
, Division for Dynamical Astronomy (1991) - Karl Schwarzschild MedalKarl Schwarzschild MedalThe Karl Schwarzschild Medal, named after the astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild, is an award presented by the Astronomische Gesellschaft to eminent astronomers and astrophysicists.-Recipients:...
(1983) - National Academy of Sciences, John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science (2000)
- Bruce MedalBruce MedalThe Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was first awarded in 1898...
(1998) - Henry Norris Russell LectureshipHenry Norris Russell LectureshipThe Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research.-Previous lecturers:This list of lecturers is from the American Astronomical Society's website....
(2000) - Kavli PrizeKavli PrizeThe Kavli Prize was established in 2005 through a joint venture between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and The Kavli Foundation...
for Astrophysics (2008) - Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and LettersNorwegian Academy of Science and LettersThe Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway.-History:The University of Oslo was established in 1811. The idea of a learned society in Christiania surfaced for the first time in 1841. The city of Throndhjem had no university, but had a learned...
.
Named after him
- AsteroidAsteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
18235 Lynden-Bell18235 Lynden-Bell18235 Lynden-Bell is a main-belt asteroid discovered on September 29, 1979 by C. J. van Houten and I. van Houten-Groeneveld on Palomar Schmidt plates taken by T. Gehrels. Like many asteroid belt bodies, it has an orbit of about 5,5 years....