James Bauer (astronomer)

James "Gerbs" Bauer (born 1968, Michigan, USA) is an American astronomer who studies comets and related bodies.[1] He was the first to quantify the seasonal surface changes on Neptune's moon Triton.[2] He also observed the aftermath of the Deep Impact probe's collision with comet Tempel 1.[3][4]

Comet Tempel-Tuttle was recovered on March 4, 1997 by Karen Meech, Olivier Hainaut and James Bauer at the University of Hawai`i. At the time it was very faint (22.5 mag), but the recovery proved that it was returning on schedule and that its orbit was very well determined. [5]

Currently, he is the deputy PI of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission.[6] His analysis of the images of comet Hartley 2 taken by the WISE spacecraft revealed that the object was shedding mass.[7] The asteroid 16232 Chijagerbs is named after him and his wife, Chija Bauer. They have one daughter and one son.

  1. ^ "JPL Science Division". Archived from the original on 29 September 2006. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  2. ^ Goguen, James; Buratti, B.J.; Li, J.-Y.; Mosher, J.A.; Hicks, M.D.; Schmidt, B.E.; Goguen, J.D. (2010). "Direct Detection of Seasonal Changes on Triton with Hubble Space Telescope". The Astrophysical Journal. 723 (1): L49–L52. Bibcode:2010ApJ...723L..49B. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/723/1/L49.
  3. ^ Moore, Patrick (27 July 2005). "Fallout from Deep Impact". BBC One. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  4. ^ "Palomar Telescope Observes Collision of Deep Impact Probe With Comet Tempel 1".
  5. ^ [https://www.astro.umd.edu/~farnham/tt/tthist.html}
  6. ^ "WISE Captures Key Images of Comet Mission's Destination". 5 October 2010. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  7. ^ "Comet Hartley 2 Leaves a Bumpy Trail". Science Daily. 18 July 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2012.