Darin Ragozzine
A new Postdoc at the Center for Astrophysics. See my new
homepage.
Graduate Student
California
Institute of Technology
Planetary Science Department
Research
CV
Contact Information
Research Background:
The Kuiper belt is the name of the collection of large icy bodies at
the edge of the solar system, orbiting beyond Neptune. The most famous
Kuiper belt object (KBO) is Pluto, but there are more than 1000 known.
KBOs are also known as Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), where
"trans-Neptunian" in astronomical jargon means "the space
beyond Neptune".
KBOs are
discovered and studied with a variety of techniques, but these all require
relatively large telescopes since they are mostly very faint. I work with
Mike Brown and study the
orbits of these objects: how they go around the sun and how they go around
each other when they have moons or satellites, which is pretty often (~20%
generally and much higher for large objects). My graduate student
colleagues are currently Kris Barkume, who does
infrared spectroscopy on the bright KBOs, Emily Schaller, who has
worked a variety of KBO-related questions, and Meg Schwamb who has
just joined our group and also observes KBOs. See their webpages for more
information and explanation of our research. Though I don't personally man
the telescopes, I do like to figure out what the meaning of the pictures
taken by the telescopes. I would say this makes me an
astrophysicist/dynamicist with a specialization in planetary science (or
vice versa).
My favorite KBO is 2003 EL61, now named
Haumea. For
many reasons, I think it could be called the most interesting object in the
Kuiper belt. One of my main research goals is to figure out the important
history and current state of this fast-spinning, non-spherical, ice-covered rock
with two moons. Two! They are now named Hi'iaka and Namaka. No other KBO
and only a couple of asteroids are known to
have two moons. Pluto has three moons and the giant planets have many moons, but
EL61's moons are pretty cool since they're both relatively large and
appear to be strongly
interacting. They were also formed in a huge collision that created a
whole family of KBOs in similar orbits. An artist's rendition of the
general shape of EL61 and its moons is given to the right.
More info on Research Interests:
Contact Information:
Darin Ragozzine
California Institute of Technology
MC 150-21
Pasadena, CA 91101
