David C. Jewitt
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David Clifford Jewitt (born 1958) is a British-American astronomer who studies the Solar System, especially its minor bodies. He is based at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is a Member of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, the Director of the Institute for Planets and Exoplanets, Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. He is best known for being the first person (along with
Jane Luu Jane X. Luu ( vi, ; born July 1963) is a Vietnamese-American astronomer and defense systems engineer. She was awarded the Kavli Prize (shared with David C. Jewitt and Michael Brown) for 2012 "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt ...
) to discover a body beyond
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...
and Charon in the Kuiper belt.


Early life

Jewitt was born in London, England in 1958.http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/bio.pdf His mother was a telephonist, and his father worked on an assembly line making industrial steel cutters. The family lived with Jewitt's grandmother in a social housing project in the north London suburb of
Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...
. Jewitt's interest in astronomy was kindled in 1965, when he chanced to see some bright
meteor A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mi ...
s. Media coverage of
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
's Apollo 8 and
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...
lunar missions in 1968 and 1969 added to his enthusiasm. His own exploration of outer space began with a tabletop 40 mm refracting telescope that his grandparents gave him as a birthday present. Upgrading to a 150 mm reflector built by his uncle Malcolm and then a homemade 250 mm instrument, Jewitt became a serious amateur astronomer while still a schoolboy. He joined the
Transient lunar phenomenon A transient lunar phenomenon (TLP) or lunar transient phenomenon (LTP) is a short-lived light, color or change in appearance on the surface of the Moon. The term was created by Patrick Moore in his co-authorship of NASA Technical Report R-277 ''C ...
subsection of the Lunar Section of the
British Astronomical Association The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers. Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...
, and regularly contributed reports of his observations to the Section's circular.Mobberley, Martin: ''It came from outer space wearing an RAF blazer!: a fan's biography of Sir Patrick Moore'', 2013, p.387


Education

Jewitt was educated at local authority primary and secondary schools. He was also an autodidact, borrowing books from a travelling library to supplement the few that his parents could afford to buy for him. His interest in physics began when a teacher introduced him to the subject, of which he had never previously heard, when he was twelve or thirteen. In 1976, supported by a local authority grant, Jewitt enrolled at
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...
to take courses in astronomy, physics, mathematics, computing, electronics, metalwork and technical drawing, studying both at UCL's Gower Street campus and at the
UCL Observatory UCL Observatory (called the University of London Observatory until 2015) at Mill Hill in London is an astronomical teaching observatory. It is part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London. History The Observator ...
(then called the
University of London Observatory UCL Observatory (called the University of London Observatory until 2015) at Mill Hill in London is an astronomical teaching observatory. It is part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London. History The Observator ...
) in
Mill Hill Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it became part of Greater London. Its population counted 18,45 ...
. The module that he enjoyed most was a panoramic survey of physics delivered by the Christian,
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
-driving space scientist Professor Sir Robert Boyd. Together with his friend, the future poet and environmental activist Roly Drower, Jewitt graduated with a first class honours B.Sc. in astronomy in 1979. Following the advice of UCL's Professor Michael Dworetsky, Jewitt decided to pursue his postgraduate studies at the
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
in
Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...
. He became an Anthony Fellow at Caltech in 1979, achieving an M.S. in planetary science in 1980. After investigating
planetary nebula A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelate ...
e and
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
s with the 200 inch
Hale telescope The Hale Telescope is a , 3.3 reflecting telescope at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, US, named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1928, he orchestrated the planning, de ...
of the
Mount Palomar Observatory Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
, working with Ed Danielson and Gerry Neugebauer under the supervision of Professor James Westphal, he was awarded a Ph.D. in planetary science and astronomy in 1983. He has recalled his adventures in the Hale's vertiginous prime focus cage as occasionally a risk to life and limb.


Career

In 1983, Jewitt became an Assistant Professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1988, attracted by the powerful telescopes sited on Mauna Kea, he moved to the
University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, becoming an Associate Astronomer in its Institute of Astronomy and an Associate Professor in its Department of Physics and Astronomy. In 1993, the Institute promoted him to the rank of Astronomer ''tout court''. In 2009, Jewitt returned to the American mainland to work at the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...
, becoming a Member of UCLA's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and a Professor in what was then its Department of Earth and Space Sciences. In 2010 he was given a second chair, becoming a Professor in UCLA's Department of Physics and Astronomy. In 2011, he became the Director of UCLA's Institute for Planets and Exoplanets.


Research

Jewitt's research interests have embraced many topics in planetary science, including the Kuiper belt,
circumstellar disc A circumstellar disc (or circumstellar disk) is a torus, pancake or ring-shaped accretion disk of matter composed of gas, dust, planetesimals, asteroids, or collision fragments in orbit around a star. Around the youngest stars, they are the re ...
s, planetary
ring system A ring system is a disc or ring, orbiting an astronomical object, that is composed of solid material such as dust and moonlets, and is a common component of satellite systems around giant planets. A ring system around a planet is also known as ...
s, the physical properties of comets, frozen
volatiles Volatiles are the group of chemical elements and chemical compounds that can be readily vaporized. In contrast with volatiles, elements and compounds that are not readily vaporized are known as refractory substances. On planet Earth, the term ...
in asteroids, the
moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
s of the
gas giant A gas giant is a giant planet composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Gas giants are also called failed stars because they contain the same basic elements as a star. Jupiter and Saturn are the gas giants of the Solar System. The term "gas giant" ...
planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...
s and the formation and evolution of the Solar System. In 1992, after five years of searching, Jewitt and the Vietnamese-American astronomer
Jane X. Luu Jane X. Luu ( vi, ; born July 1963) is a Vietnamese-American astronomer and defense systems engineer. She was awarded the Kavli Prize (shared with David C. Jewitt and Michael Brown) for 2012 "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt ...
discovered
15760 Albion 15760 Albion, provisional designation , was the first trans-Neptunian object to be discovered after Pluto and Charon. Measuring about 108–167 kilometres in diameter, it was discovered in 1992 by David C. Jewitt and Jane X. Luu at the Mauna Ke ...
, the first
Kuiper belt object The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 time ...
(other than
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...
and its largest moon Charon) to be detected. Jewitt and Luu named the object after a character who features in the mythological poetry of
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
, a writer whom Jewitt admires. (Blake in turn took the name from an ancient poetic term for Jewitt's native England.) Jewitt and Luu would have preferred to name the object
Smiley A smiley, sometimes referred to as a smiley face, is a basic ideogram that represents a smiling face. Since the 1950s it has become part of popular culture worldwide, used either as a standalone ideogram, or as a form of communication, such a ...
after the protagonist of
John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...
's novel '' Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'', a favourite book of both of theirs, but they were unable to do so because the name had already been allocated to the asteroid 1613 Smiley in honour of Charles Hugh Smiley, an American astronomer. Since discovering 15760 Albion, Jewitt has identified dozens of other objects in the Kuiper belt in a series of pioneering wide field surveys. Thanks to his work and the efforts of other astronomers, it is now known that the Kuiper belt objects are divided into four distinct populations. In what is called the dynamically cold classical Kuiper belt, of which 15760 Albion is the prototypical member, objects have
orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...
s that are almost circular and only slightly tilted with respect to the orbits of the major planets. In the dynamically hot classical Kuiper belt, objects have orbits that are more elongated and that are tilted at steeper angles. In the
scattered disc The scattered disc (or scattered disk) is a distant circumstellar disc in the Solar System that is sparsely populated by icy small solar system bodies, which are a subset of the broader family of trans-Neptunian objects. The scattered-disc obje ...
, also called the scattered Kuiper belt, discovered in 1997, bodies move in large orbits that are more elongated and more tilted still. The Resonant Kuiper belt objects move in orbits that are harmonically related to that of Neptune: the ratio of the orbital period of a resonant object to the Neptunian year is equal to one small
integer An integer is the number zero (), a positive natural number (, , , etc.) or a negative integer with a minus sign ( −1, −2, −3, etc.). The negative numbers are the additive inverses of the corresponding positive numbers. In the languag ...
divided by another. (The resonant objects in the 3:2 mean-motion
resonance Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied Periodic function, periodic force (or a Fourier analysis, Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system ...
Jewitt has named
plutino In astronomy, the plutinos are a dynamical group of trans-Neptunian objects that orbit in 2:3 mean-motion resonance with Neptune. This means that for every two orbits a plutino makes, Neptune orbits three times. The dwarf planet Pluto is the l ...
s, in recognition of Pluto's being the first of them to be discovered.) Mathematical models of the formation and evolution of the Solar System have indicated that in order for the Kuiper belt to have developed the structure that has been observed, the Kuiper belt objects and the gas giant planets must have come to their present orbits after migrating to them from elsewhere, pulled away from their earlier paths by their gravitational interactions with one another and with the disc of material that had coalesced around the juvenile Sun. In particular, it seems that Neptune long ago moved outward from an earlier orbit that was much closer to the Sun, and that the Kuiper belt objects, also originally closer to the Sun, were drawn outward with it. In 1979, in his first months as a graduate student, Jewitt discovered the Jovian moon Adrastea on images taken by ''
Voyager 2 ''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, to study the outer planets and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. As a part of the Voyager program, it was launched 16 days before its twin, '' Voyager 1'', o ...
''. He has since discovered more than seventy further moons of
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
, Saturn,
Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus ( Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of ...
and Neptune. In 1982, he achieved worldwide fame as the first astronomer to recover
Halley's Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the on ...
as it approached its 1986
perihelion An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any elli ...
, detecting it with the Hale telescope using an early CCD. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of more than forty asteroids. The inner main-belt asteroid 6434 Jewitt, discovered by
Edward Bowell Edward L. G. "Ted" Bowell (born 1943 in London), is an American astronomer. Bowell was educated at Emanuel School London, University College, London, and the University of Paris. He was principal investigator of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth ...
in 1981, was named in his honour. In the naming citation, published on 1 July 1996, Jane Luu described Jewitt as "the consummate astronomer" ().


Controversies

When Pluto was first discovered, it was added to the canonical list of major planets. After Jewitt and Luu's discovery of 15760 Albion and the subsequent finding of many more Kuiper belt objects, it became apparent that Pluto had more in common with these objects than it did with its supposed planetary peers. Some astronomers suggested that Pluto should be demoted. Jewitt thought that the question of whether Pluto was a planet was "essentially bogus" and "scientifically ..a non-issue", but ultimately agreed with the
International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
's 2006 decision to reclassify Pluto as a
dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
. With the development of ever better telescopes and detectors, astronomers have been able to find moons that are ever smaller and smaller. Some astronomers have argued that moons smaller than some arbitrary size are unworthy of their title. Jewitt has dissented, asking "Is a small dog not a dog because it is small?"


Outreach

In October 1982, Patrick Moore interviewed Jewitt about his recovery of Halley's Comet in a special episode of BBC TV's ''
The Sky at Night ''The Sky at Night'' is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show had the same permanent presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first broadcast on 24 April 1957 until 7 January 2013. The latter date ...
''. In November 1985, as the comet neared the Sun, Jewitt again described how he had recovered it in an episode of BBC TV's '' Horizon'' titled ''Halley's Comet – the Apparition'' (Season 22, Episode 17). A quarter of a century later, ''Horizon'' returned to Jewitt to interview him for ''Asteroids: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (Season 47, Episode 6). Jewitt told viewers that he had found it difficult to secure enough telescope time for his trans-Neptunian research, and had only been able to achieve his celebrated breakthrough by looking for Kuiper belt objects on nights when he was supposed to be working on other projects. Jewitt has also explained his work to non-specialists in articles in ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...
'', ''
Sky and Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomic ...
'' and ''The Sky at Night BBC Magazine''.


Honours

In 1994, Jewitt was awarded the University of Hawaii's Regent's Medal for excellence in research. In 1996, the ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation's Honolulu chapter named him the Hawaii Scientist of the Year, and NASA gave him their Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal. In 1998, he was made an Honorary Fellow of University College London. In 2000, he became an Honorary Professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of the
Chinese Academy of Science The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...
. In 2005, he became a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
. In 2007, he was made an Adjunct Professor of the National Central University of Taiwan. In 2012, he was awarded the $1 million Shaw Prize for astronomy, jointly with his former student Jane X. Luu of MIT's Lincoln Laboratury, in recognition of their "discovery and characterization of trans-Neptunian bodies, an archaeological treasure dating back to the formation of the solar system and the long sought source of short period comets". In 2012 too he was awarded the $1 million
Kavli Prize The Kavli Prize was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation. It honors, supports, and recognizes scientists for outstan ...
for astrophysics, jointly with Luu and Michael Brown, for the same work. 2012 also saw his becoming a Foreign Member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...
.


Personal life

In 1991, Jewitt met Jing Li (a Chinese-American born in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, China), a Ph.D. student of
solar physics Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It deals with detailed measurements that are possible only for our closest star. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics, astrophysics, and compu ...
at the
University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...
, while she was visiting the University of Hawaii. Jewitt and Jing married in 1993. Their daughter, Suu Suu, was born in 2000. As a child, Jewitt's extra-astronomical interests included writing, history, music, machines, animals, trees, rocks and fossils. Among the pleasures of his mature years are the cult British TV series ''
The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a 1967 British television series about an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a mysterious coastal village, where his captors designate him as Number Six and try to find out why he abruptl ...
'' and the music of the twentieth century modernist composers
Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...
and Giannis Xenakis. Jewitt remembers a visit of Xenakis's to Caltech as a highlight of his years of working there. In 2014, Jewitt was one of 365 eminent people invited to forecast the likely future of the Earth. He declared himself hopeful, deriving his optimism from his opinion that democracy had transcended dictatorship and science had transcended religion.MacLean, Todd: ''Global chorus: 365 voices on the future of the planet'', 2014, p. 388


Select bibliography

A complete, up to date list of Jewitt's more than two hundred academic publications is available via his UCLA website. His magazine articles for general readers are: *J. Luu and D. Jewitt: The Kuiper belt; ''Scientific American'', May 1996 *D. Jewitt, S. Sheppard and J. Kleyna: The strangest satellites in the Solar System; ''Scientific American'', August 2006 *D. Jewitt: What else is out there?; ''Sky and Telescope'', March 2010 *D. Jewitt: Mysterious travelers; ''Sky and Telescope''. December 2013 *D. Jewitt and E. Young: Oceans from the skies; ''Scientific American'', March 2015 *D. Jewitt: The Kuiper belt; ''The Sky at Night BBC Magazine'', November 2015


References


External links


Curriculum vitae




* about the Kuiper belt,
Pan-STARRS The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1; obs. code: F51 and Pan-STARRS2 obs. code: F52) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US, consists of astronomical cameras, telescopes and a computing facility that is ...
, and icy main-belt comets {{DEFAULTSORT:Jewitt, David 1958 births Living people 20th-century British astronomers Discoverers of minor planets Discoverers of trans-Neptunian objects * Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Planetary scientists Kavli Prize laureates in Astrophysics 21st-century American astronomers California Institute of Technology fellows