Peter Jenniskens

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Peter Jenniskens found his first fragment of 2008 TC3 on Feb. 28, 2009, at the Nubian Desert, Sudan.

Petrus Matheus Marie (Peter) Jenniskens (born 1962) is a Dutch astronomer and a senior research scientist at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and at NASA Ames Research Center [1]. He is an expert on meteor showers. Jenniskens is the author of the 790 page book "Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets" published by Cambridge University Press in 2006 [2]. Jenniskens is chair of the Task Group on Meteor Shower Nomenclature of Commission 22 of the International Astronomical Union (2006-2009) [3]. Discovered at Ondrejov Observatory by Peter Plavec, asteroid "42981 Jenniskens" is named in his honor.

In 2008, Jenniskens together with Muawia Shaddad, lead a team from the University of Khartoum in Sudan that recovered fragments of asteroid 2008 TC3 in the Nubian Desert, marking the first time meteorite fragments had been found from an object that was previously tracked in outer space before hitting Earth.[4][5]

Contents

[edit] NASA Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaigns

[edit] Meteor showers

Jenniskens is the principal investigator of NASA's Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign (Leonid MAC), a series of four airborne missions that fielded modern instrumental techniques to study the 1998 - 2002 Leonids meteor storms [6]. These missions helped develop meteor storm prediction models, detected the signature of organic matter in the wake of meteors as a potential precursor to origin-of-life chemistry, and discovered many new aspects of meteor radiation.

More recent meteor shower missions include the Aurigid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign (Aurigid MAC), which studied a rare September 1, 2007, outburst of Aurigids from long-period comet C/1911 N1 (Kiess) [7], and the Quadrantid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign (Quadrantid MAC), which studied the January 3, 2008, Quadrantids [8].

[edit] Spacecraft reentries

His research also includes artificial meteors. Jenniskens is the principal investigator of NASA's Genesis and Stardust Entry Observing Campaigns to study the fiery return from interplanetary space of the Genesis (Sep. 2004) and Stardust (Jan. 2006) sample return capsules [9]. These airborne missions studied what physical conditions the protective heat shield endured during the reentry before being recovered.

More recently, Jenniskens led a mission to study the destructive entry of ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle "Jules Verne" on 29 September 2008 [10]. An overview of ongoing missions can be found at: [1].

[edit] 2008 TC3 fragments recovery

The recovery of fragments of asteroid 2008 TC3 marked the first time fragments had been found from an object that was previously tracked in outer space before hitting Earth.[4] This search was lead by Peter Jenniskens and Muawia Shaddad of the University of Khartoum in Sudan, and carried out with help from students and staff of the University of Khartoum. The search of the impact zone began on December 6th, 2008 and turned up 8.7 pounds (3.9 kg) of rocks in 280 fragments.[4][5][11].

[edit] Other research

Jenniskens identified several important mechanisms of how our meteor showers originate. Since 2003, Jenniskens identified the Quadrantids parent body 2003 EH1, and several others, as new examples of how fragmenting comets are the dominant source of meteor showers [12]. Before that, he predicted and observed the 1995 Alpha Monocerotids meteor outburst (with members of the Dutch Meteor Society), proving that "stars fell like rain at midnight" because the dust trails of long-period comets wander on occasion in Earth's path.

In earlier collaborations, he discovered that an unusual viscous form of liquid water can be a common form of water in comets and icy satellites (during a post-doc study with David F. Blake) and he created the first broad detection-limited survey of Diffuse Interstellar Bands in his PhD thesis work with Xavier Désert.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Career pages of astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens
  2. ^ Jenniskens P., Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 790 pp.
  3. ^ IAU Meteor Data Center
  4. ^ a b c "NASA Team Finds Riches in Meteorite Treasure Hunt". NASA. 2009-03-27. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroid_treasure_hunt.html. Retrieved on 2009-04-05. 
  5. ^ a b P. Jenniskens et. al. (2009-03-26). "The impact and recovery of asteroid 2008 TC3". Nature (458): 485-488. doi:10.1038/nature07920. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v458/n7237/abs/nature07920.html.  Published in Letters to Nature
  6. ^ "NASA's Leonid Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign Homepage". NASA. http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov. 
  7. ^ "The NASA Aurigid Meteor Shower Observing Campaign". SETI Institute. http://aurigid.seti.org. 
  8. ^ "The NASA Quadrantid Meteor Shower Observing Campaign". SETI Institute. http://aurigid.seti.org. 
  9. ^ "The Stardust SRC Entry Observing Campaign". NASA. 2009-05-22. http://reentry.arc.nasa.gov. Retrieved on 2009-05-22. 
  10. ^ "The ATV-1 Jules Verne Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign". SETI Institute. http://atv.seti.org. 
  11. ^ "The Impact and Recovery of 2008 TC3". SETI Institute. http://asima.seti.org/2008TC3/. 
  12. ^ Leonid MAC '99 - News on the Leonid shower
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