Dirk Terrell Explained

Dirk Terrell
Birth Date:14 August 1965
Birth Place:San Francisco, CA, US
Known For:Astronomy, Space art
Occupation:Astronomer

Dirk Terrell (born August 14, 1965) is an American astronomer and space artist who is the Director of the Computer and Software Sciences section in the Planetary Science Directorate of the Space Science and Engineering division of the Southwest Research Institute.[1] He is a Fellow and former President of the International Association of Astronomical Artists.[2] He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Clemson University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Florida.

Career

In 2013, he was a member of a team of scientists that discovered and characterized the extrasolar planet Kepler-64b, a.k.a. PH1, the first planet discovered in a quadruple star system. He showed that suspected transits in the Kepler Space Telescope data of the system were indeed due to a planet transiting the eclipsing binary in the system.[3] [4] In 2014, he helped discover and characterize planets in three additional stellar systems, including Kepler-88 and Kepler-247.

He is a core team member of the AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey (APASS), a photometric survey of over 100 million stars, providing measurements in eight photometric filters.

Awards and honors

Asteroid 79912 Terrell is named in his honor.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: SwRI Department of Space Studies Organization Chart. 1 July 2013. 1 July 2013.
  2. Web site: IAAA Fellows List. 1 July 2013. 1 July 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130616213653/http://iaaa.org/fellows.html. 16 June 2013. dead.
  3. Web site: Citizen astronomers lead to first-of-a-kind discovery: circumbinary planet in four-star system. 1 July 2013. 15 October 2012.
  4. Web site: The Road to Characterizing PH1: Transits and Initial Modeling. 1 July 2013. 25 October 2012.