Paul Kalas
Encyclopedia
Paul Kalas is a Greek American
astronomer
known for his discoveries of debris disk
s around star
s. Kalas led a team of scientists to obtain the first visible-light images of an extrasolar planet
with orbital motion around the star Fomalhaut
, at a distance of 25 light years
from Earth
. The planet is referred to as Fomalhaut b
.
to George and Maria Kavallinis, who immigrated to the United States
from Heraklion
, Crete
. Kalas attended Detroit Country Day School
in Michigan
, and studied astronomy and physics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He earned a Ph.D.
in Astronomy in 1996 from the University of Hawaii
under the direction of astronomer David Jewitt.
Kalas worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
in Heidelberg, Germany, the Space Telescope Science Institute
, and the University of California, Berkeley
. In 2006, he became an Adjunct Professor of Astronomy
at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kalas lives with his wife Aspasia Gika and daughters Maria-Nikoleta and Natalia in Berkeley, California
.
on the Hubble Space Telescope
and at the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope at Mauna Kea
, Hawaii. In 1995 he discovered various forms of asymmetric structure in optical images of the Beta Pictoris
disk. He was the lead scientist for the first optical images of debris disks surrounding the nearby red dwarf
AU Microscopii
and the bright star Fomalhaut
.
Kalas' Hubble Space Telescope
image of Fomalhaut
revealed a narrow belt of dusty material analogous to our Solar System
's Kuiper Belt
. However, Kalas also found that Fomalhaut's belt is narrow and geometrically offset from the star by 15 astronomical units. These features are considered strong evidence for an extrasolar planet
orbiting Fomalhaut
that gravitationally sculpts the morphology of the belt.
Greek American
Greek Americans are Americans of Greek descent also described as Hellenic descent. According to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimation, there were 1,380,088 people of Greek ancestry in the United States, while the State Department mentions that around 3,000,000 Americans claim to be of Greek descent...
astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
known for his discoveries of debris disk
Debris disk
A debris disk is a circumstellar disk of dust and debris in orbit around a star. Sometimes these disks contain prominent rings, as seen in the image of Fomalhaut on the right. Debris disks have been found around both evolved and young stars, as well as at least one debris disk in orbit around a...
s around star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
s. Kalas led a team of scientists to obtain the first visible-light images of an extrasolar planet
Extrasolar planet
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...
with orbital motion around the star Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and one of the brightest stars in the sky. Fomalhaut can be seen low in the southern sky in the northern hemisphere in fall and early winter evenings. Near latitude 50˚N, it sets around the time Sirius rises, and does not...
, at a distance of 25 light years
Light Years
Light Years is the seventh studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue. It was released on 25 September 2000 by Parlophone and Mushroom Records. The album's style was indicative of her return to "mainstream pop dance tunes"....
from Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. The planet is referred to as Fomalhaut b
Fomalhaut b
Fomalhaut b is an extrasolar planet approximately 25 light-years away in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus. The planet was discovered orbiting the A-type main sequence star Fomalhaut in 2008 in photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope...
.
Background
Kalas was born in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to George and Maria Kavallinis, who immigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from Heraklion
Heraklion
Heraklion, or Heraclion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete, Greece. It is the 4th largest city in Greece....
, Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
. Kalas attended Detroit Country Day School
Detroit Country Day School
Detroit Country Day School is a private, secular school located in four campuses in Oakland County, Michigan, north of Detroit. The administrative offices, facility services, safety and security services, and the upper school are located in a campus in Beverly Hills, along with the middle school...
in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, and studied astronomy and physics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He earned a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Astronomy in 1996 from the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...
under the direction of astronomer David Jewitt.
Kalas worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
The Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie is a research institute of the Max Planck Society. It is located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany near the top of the Koenigstuhl, adjacent to the historic Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl astronomical observatory.The institute was founded in...
in Heidelberg, Germany, the Space Telescope Science Institute
Space Telescope Science Institute
The Space Telescope Science Institute is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope and for the James Webb Space Telescope...
, and the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. In 2006, he became an Adjunct Professor of Astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kalas lives with his wife Aspasia Gika and daughters Maria-Nikoleta and Natalia in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
.
Discoveries
Kalas discovered several circumstellar disks using a coronagraphCoronagraph
A coronagraph is a telescopic attachment designed to block out the direct light from a star so that nearby objects – which otherwise would be hidden in the star's bright glare – can be resolved...
on the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
and at the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope at Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea is a volcano on the island of Hawaii. Standing above sea level, its peak is the highest point in the state of Hawaii. However, much of the mountain is under water; when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is over tall—significantly taller than Mount Everest...
, Hawaii. In 1995 he discovered various forms of asymmetric structure in optical images of the Beta Pictoris
Beta Pictoris
Beta Pictoris is the second brightest star in the constellation Pictor. It is located 63.4 light years from our solar system, and is 1.75 times as massive and 8.7 times as luminous as the Sun. The Beta Pictoris system is very young, only 8–20 million years old, although it is already in the main...
disk. He was the lead scientist for the first optical images of debris disks surrounding the nearby red dwarf
Red dwarf
According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type....
AU Microscopii
AU Microscopii
AU Microscopii is a red dwarf star located 10 parsecs away – about 8 times as far as our closest star after the Sun. AU Mic is a young star, only 12 million years old, less than 1% of the age of the Sun. It has only half the mass of the Sun and is only one-tenth as bright...
and the bright star Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and one of the brightest stars in the sky. Fomalhaut can be seen low in the southern sky in the northern hemisphere in fall and early winter evenings. Near latitude 50˚N, it sets around the time Sirius rises, and does not...
.
Kalas' Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
image of Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and one of the brightest stars in the sky. Fomalhaut can be seen low in the southern sky in the northern hemisphere in fall and early winter evenings. Near latitude 50˚N, it sets around the time Sirius rises, and does not...
revealed a narrow belt of dusty material analogous to our Solar System
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
's Kuiper Belt
Kuiper belt
The Kuiper belt , sometimes called the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt, is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets extending from the orbit of Neptune to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, although it is far larger—20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive...
. However, Kalas also found that Fomalhaut's belt is narrow and geometrically offset from the star by 15 astronomical units. These features are considered strong evidence for an extrasolar planet
Extrasolar planet
An extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, is a planet outside the Solar System. A total of such planets have been identified as of . It is now known that a substantial fraction of stars have planets, including perhaps half of all Sun-like stars...
orbiting Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut
Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and one of the brightest stars in the sky. Fomalhaut can be seen low in the southern sky in the northern hemisphere in fall and early winter evenings. Near latitude 50˚N, it sets around the time Sirius rises, and does not...
that gravitationally sculpts the morphology of the belt.
| AU Microscopii AU Microscopii AU Microscopii is a red dwarf star located 10 parsecs away – about 8 times as far as our closest star after the Sun. AU Mic is a young star, only 12 million years old, less than 1% of the age of the Sun. It has only half the mass of the Sun and is only one-tenth as bright... |
October 14, 2003 |
| Fomalhaut Fomalhaut Fomalhaut is the brightest star in the constellation Piscis Austrinus and one of the brightest stars in the sky. Fomalhaut can be seen low in the southern sky in the northern hemisphere in fall and early winter evenings. Near latitude 50˚N, it sets around the time Sirius rises, and does not... |
May 17, 2004 |
| HD 15115 HD 15115 HD 15115 is a yellow-white star.The asymmetric disk encircling the star was discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope and further investigated by the W.M... |
July 17, 2006 |
| HD 53143 HD 53143 HD 53143 is an orange main sequence star that is located about 60 light years from the Sun. It is about a billion years in age and lies within the Carina constellation. A debris disk has been found in a wide orbit around this star.... |
September 11, 2004 |
| HD 139664 | October 14, 2004 |
Honors
- Newcomb Cleveland PrizeNewcomb Cleveland PrizeThe Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is annually awarded to author of outstanding scientific paper published in the Research Articles or Reports sections of Science...
of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
(2009)