Keith Noll
My first astronomical memory dates from early
childhood. It was a warm summer evening and I was
standing at my mother's side as she talked to our
neighbor over the backyard fence. Looking up I suddenly
noticed a bright streak moving across the sky. I
could make out a green glowing disk with dark splotches
as it flashed overhead. A few seconds later there
was a loud boom. I was sure whatever it was had
fallen in front of our house on Harrison street.
Only many years later did I realize that I had seen
a particularly bright meteor.
Perhaps that early experience played a role in my
lifelong appreciation of the sky. As a teenager
I would take long nighttime walks with our family
dog, Penny, paying particular attention to the play
of the moon in the clouds and the branches of the
oak trees. I relished the view of the Milky Way
from the dark beaches of Long Island. I remember
my astonishment at seeing the zodiacal light as
I drove the saddle road to the astronomer's dormitory
on Mauna Kea. Each time I camp or go observing I
take special pleasure in crisp nights with dark,
star filled skies.
The spectacularly successful Viking
and Voyager missions strongly influenced my choice
to specialize in the study of planets and satellites.
Seeing images of sunset from the surface of Mars
or the violently swirling clouds of Jupiter inspired
me. Now, as a professional astronomer, I attempt
to decipher the compositional information contained
in the complex infrared and ultraviolet spectra
of these objects to gain some clues about their
makeup and histories. Most exciting to me are the
new frontiers of planetary astronomy. The recently
discovered Kuiper Belt is a collection of primitive,
icy planetesimals orbiting at the fringe of the
solar system. And the equally recent discoveries
of substellar objects beyond the solar system, extrasolar
planets and brown dwarfs, has greatly expanded the
opportunities to learn more about the origin of
planets and, ultimately, ourselves.
Throughout my career I have been lucky
in working with intelligent, honest, humorous, creative,
and generous mentors, colleagues, and friends. With
fewer than ten thousand astronomers in the world
and only hundreds in each area of specialization,
the social network of astronomy resembles that of
a small town. If you don't know someone directly,
you are almost sure to know a mutual acquaintance.
It was through such a mutual friend that I encountered
Chris Luginbuhl. My first question to my friend
was whether, by chance, this fellow had grown up
in Delaware. To my surprise, it turned out that,
indeed, he was one of the children in the family
that had lived three houses down the street from
mine. Because we went to different schools, I never
met Chris as a child, but we have since happily
shared our fondness for the environs of the Brandywine
river valley that we both explored in our teens
and the beauties of the Arizona desert we discovered
as adults. It has been a distinct pleasure to collaborate
with Chris on this project.
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