Steven S. Vogt

Steven S. Vogt
Born (1949-12-20) December 20, 1949 (age 74)
Rock Island, Illinois, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known for
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral students [1][2]

Steven Scott Vogt (born December 20, 1949) is an American astronomer[4] of German descent whose main interest is the search for exoplanets.

He is credited, along with R. Paul Butler, for discovering Gliese 581 g, the first potentially habitable planet outside of the Solar System.[5][6][7][8] However, Gliese 581 g was later found to be a false positive.[9]

He is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz,[10] and is known worldwide for designing and building HIRES, a high-resolution optical spectrometer mounted permanently on the W. M. Keck Observatory 10-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.[11] HIRES is an instrument critical to observations and discoveries about the planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe.[12][13] Vogt also built the Hamilton spectrometer at Lick Observatory (with which most of the first extrasolar planets were discovered).[14] In 1987,[15] earlier in his career, Vogt invented the technique of "Doppler imaging" for mapping the surface features of stars.[16][17]

Vogt is currently a member of the California-Carnegie Planet Search Team.[14] This team is building a new telescope in the Lick Observatory, the Automated Planet Finder, expected to be the most powerful in the world for detecting extrasolar planets. It will be able to track planets moving at velocities as little as 1 meter per second (the speed of a walking man).[14] Vogt and his team are credited with detecting a majority of the 100 planets now known.[13]

Vogt received his bachelor's degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1972, his Master of Science degree in Astronomy from UT Austin in 1976, and Ph.D in Astronomy from UT Austin in 1978.[18]

He's been a member of the University of California Observatories (UCO) at Lick Observatory since 1978.[10]

  1. ^ Overbye, Dennis (12 May 2013). "Finder of New Worlds". New York Times. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference ucsc2007091537 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Kaufman, Marc (30 September 2010). "Astronomers find first habitable planet outside solar system". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  4. ^ "NASA - Planets". World Book at NASA. NASA. Archived from the original on 1 October 2006. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vogt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Michael D. Lemonick (29 September 2010). "Found: An Earthlike Planet, at Last". Time. Archived from the original on October 2, 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  7. ^ Dennis Overbye (29 September 2010). "New Planet May Be Able to Nurture Organisms". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  8. ^ "Could 'Goldilocks' Planet Be Just Right For Life?". National Public Radio. Associated Press. 30 September 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.[dead link]
  9. ^ Robertson, Paul; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Endl, Michael; Roy, Arpita (2014-07-25). "Stellar Activity Masquerading as Planets in the Habitable Zone of the M dwarf Gliese 581". Science. 345 (6195): 440–444. arXiv:1407.1049. doi:10.1126/science.1253253. ISSN 0036-8075.
  10. ^ a b "Steven S. Vogt - Professor, Astronomy & Astrophysics". University of California Santa Cruz. Archived from the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  11. ^ Dr. Steven S. Vogt. "HIRES: High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph". UCO/Lick Observatory. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  12. ^ Dr. Steven S. Vogt. "The Keck I Telescope High Resolution Spectrometer". UCO/Lick Observatory. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
  13. ^ a b "Outstanding Alumnus Award". University of Texas at Austin. Archived from the original on 7 August 2009. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  14. ^ a b c "Staff & Advisory Boards". Science Buddies. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
  15. ^ "News from McDonald Observatory and the Department of Astronomy". Astronomy Program · University of Texas at Austin. 29 June 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  16. ^ Penrod, G. D.; Vogt, S. S. (1983). "High-order nonradial oscillations on rapidly rotating early-type stars". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 95 (571): 599. Bibcode:1983PASP...95..599P.
  17. ^ Vogt, Steven S.; Penrod, G. Donald; Hatzes, Artie P. (1987). "Doppler images of rotating stars using maximum entropy image reconstruction". The Astrophysical Journal. 321: 496. Bibcode:1987ApJ...321..496V. doi:10.1086/165647.
  18. ^ Dr. Steven S. Vogt. "Dr. Steven S. Vogt". UCO/Lick Observatory. Retrieved 5 October 2010.