Zoltán Balog (born on October 10, 1972 in Szolnok, Hungary) is an astronomer with the

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy The Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, MPIA) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society (MPG). It is located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany near the top of the Königstuhl, adjacent to the ...

in Heidelberg, Germany. In 2006, while at the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, Balog's team was the first to observe the complete process of

photoevaporation Photoevaporation denotes the process where energetic radiation ionises gas and causes it to disperse away from the ionising source. This typically refers to an astrophysical context where ultraviolet electromagnetic radiation, radiation from hot st ...

of a protoplanetary disk.

Observations

Balog's team was the first to observe protoplanetary disk photoevaporation and the resulting dust tail using NASA's

Spitzer Space Telescope The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003. Operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicated to infrared astronomy, f ...

. The resulting paper was published in '' Astrophysical Journal''. Balog's collaborators and co-authors are astronomers James Muzerolle, Erick T. Young, George Rieke and Kate Su,The University of Arizona Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory
(5 Oct, 2006) retrieved 8 Jan, 2007 all of the University of Arizona at Tucson. Balog is a member of the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) Guaranteed Time Oberservation (GTO) team led by

George Rieke George Henry Rieke (born January 5, 1943), a noted American infrared astronomer, is former Deputy Director of the Steward Observatory and Regents Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He led the ...

Publications

Balog earned his PhD in Physics in 2005 from the University of Szeged, Hungary. He was also a

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution, concentrating on astrophysical studies including galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, solar, earth and planetary sciences, the ...

pre-doctoral fellow between 1999 and 2002 at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balog, Zoltan 1972 births Living people 21st-century Hungarian astronomers 20th-century Hungarian astronomers University of Szeged alumni University of Arizona faculty