Mauri Valtonen (born 1945) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

and professor at the

University of Turku sv, Åbo universitet , latin_name = Universitas Aboensis , image_name = University of Turku.svg , motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle'' , established = 1920 , type ...

. His fields of scientific interest include

active galaxies An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not pr ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...

, and the

three-body problem In physics and classical mechanics, the three-body problem is the problem of taking the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses and solving for their subsequent motion according to Newton's laws of motion and Newton's ...

. Valtonen completed a Ph.D. from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1975. He served as Director of

Tuorla Observatory Tuorla Observatory is the Department of Astronomy at the University of Turku, southwest Finland. It is the largest astronomical research institute in Finland. Together with the Space Research Laboratory at the Physics Department of the University ...

from 1980 to 2002 and returned to this position again in 2007. In 2008, Valtonen led a research team which argued that delay in the periodic outbursts from the nucleus of the active galaxy

OJ 287 OJ 287 is a BL Lac object 3.5 billion light-years from Earth that has produced quasi-periodic optical outbursts going back approximately 120 years, as first apparent on photographic plates from 1891. Seen on photographic plates since at least 18 ...

confirmed

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

general theory of relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric scientific theory, theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current descr ...

.M. Valtonen et al. (2008)
A massive binary black-hole system in OJ 287 and a test of general relativity
''Nature'', 452, 851-853

References

Books by Mauri Valtonen

*Valtonen, M. & Karttunen, H. (2006)
The Three-Body Problem
251 pages. Cambridge University Press. *Byrd, G. G., Chernin A. D. & Valtonen M. (2007).
Cosmology: Foundations and Frontiers
'. Moscow: URSS.

External links

OJ 287 2005-2008 Project
(Tuorla Observatory)
A Supermassive Black Hole Pairing
(Centauri Dreams)
Mauri Valtonen's home page
21st-century astronomers Finnish astronomers Living people 1945 births {{Finland-scientist-stub