John Peter Huchra ( ; December 23, 1948 – October 8, 2010) was an American

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, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

. He was the Vice Provost for Research Policy at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

and a Professor of

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian.Welcome to John Huchra's Website
Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian He was also a former chair of the United States National Committee for 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 ...

. and past president of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

. Huchra was born on December 23, 1948, in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Ridgefield Park, New Jersey Ridgefield Park is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the village's population was 12,729,Ridgefield Park High School Ridgefield Park High School is a six-year comprehensive community public high school that serves students in seventh through twelfth grade from Ridgefield Park, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, operating as the lone secondary scho ...

as part of the class of 1966. He developed an interest in reading books about cosmology and science fiction. He was a member of the wrestling team 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 th ...

, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1970 with a major in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

. He went on to 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 ...

, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in astronomy. He took on a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian in 1976 and remained there for the rest of his career. Overbye, Dennis
"John Huchra Dies at 61; Maps Altered Ideas on Universe"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', October 13, 2010. Accessed October 14, 2010. Together with fellow astronomers

Marc Aaronson Marc Aaronson (24 August 1950 – 30 April 1987) was an American astronomer. Life Aaronson was born in Los Angeles. He was educated at the California Institute of Technology, where he received a BS in 1972. He completed his Ph.D. in 1977 ...

and

Jeremy Mould Jeremy Richard Mould (born 31 July 1949) is an Australian astronomer currently at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology. Mould was previously Director of the Research School of Astronomy and Astr ...

, Huchra announced that based on their analysis of the brightness and rotational speed of certain spiral galaxies that the universe was nine billion years old, half the age that most astronomers had previously thought. In 1986, Valérie de Lapparent,

Margaret Geller Margaret J. Geller (born December 8, 1947) is an American astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. Her work has included pioneering maps of the nearby universe, studies of the relationship between galaxies and their ...

and Huchra published the surprisingly non-uniform distribution of galaxies at scales of several tens of

megaparsec The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (au), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, and ...

s from early results of the

CfA Redshift Survey The Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Redshift Survey was the first attempt to map the large-scale structure of the universe. The first survey began in 1977 with the objective of calculating the velocities of the brighter galaxies in the nearby unive ...

. De Lapparent, Geller and Huchra described the galaxy distribution as apparently lying on the "surfaces of bubble-like structures". In 1989, using later results from their

redshift survey In astronomy, a redshift survey is a survey of a section of the sky to measure the redshift of astronomical objects: usually galaxies, but sometimes other objects such as galaxy clusters or quasars. Using Hubble's law, the redshift can be used ...

, Geller and Huchra discovered the

Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eurasian noma ...

, a structure measuring 600 million light years in length and 250 million light years in width. This is the second largest known super-structure in the universe. The

gravitational lens A gravitational lens is a distribution of matter (such as a cluster of galaxies) between a distant light source and an observer that is capable of bending the light from the source as the light travels toward the observer. This effect is known ...

ing galaxy in front of the so-called Einstein Cross

quasar A quasar is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a mass rangi ...

was discovered by Huchra and coworkers and has been called Huchra's Lens.

References

External links

Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian">Huchra's page at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian
sitebr>AAS Officers Obituary in the Boston GlobeHuchra's papers, from ADS, sorted by citationsLast Word, 05/11/2010

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

. Matthew Bannister on

Ted Sorensen Theodore Chaikin Sorensen (May 8, 1928 – October 31, 2010) was an American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser. He was a speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, as well as one of his closest advisers. President Kennedy once called hi ...

, Maurice Murphy, John Huchra and Ronnie Clayton. {{DEFAULTSORT:Huchra, John 1948 births 2010 deaths American astronomers California Institute of Technology alumni Harvard University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Jersey City, New Jersey People from Ridgefield Park, New Jersey Ridgefield Park High School alumni MIT Department of Physics alumni Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics people