Bob Jacklyn (January 13, 1922 – June 18, 2014) was an Australian cosmic ray physicist, and former head of the Australian Antarctic Division's research program. Mount Jacklyn, located in the

Athos Range Athos Range () is the northernmost range in the Prince Charles Mountains of Mac. Robertson Land, Antarctica. The range consists of many individual mountains and nunataks that trend east–west for along the north side of Scylla Glacier. These m ...

of Antarctica, is named after him for his important research at

Mawson Station The Mawson Station, commonly called Mawson, is one of three permanent bases and research outposts in Antarctica managed by the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Mawson lies in Holme Bay in Mac. Robertson Land, East Antarctica in the Austra ...

in 1956.

Antarctic research

Bob's team at

Macquarie Island Macquarie Island is an island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. Regionally part of Oceania and politically a part of Tasmania, Australia, since 1900, it became a Tasmanian State Reserve in 197 ...

and

provided new information about the nature and source of cosmic rays. Specifically, his team reaffirmed that the rays primary source was from 'storms' on the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, and suggested that a small proportion of these rays had sidereal rather than solar periodicity. This important finding implied a Galactic or extra-galactic origin.

References

1922 births 2014 deaths Australian physicists Cosmic ray physicists {{Australia-scientist-stub