Peter Goldreich was born on July 14,1939 and is an American astrophysicist whose research focuses on celestial mechanics, planetary rings, helioseismology and neutron stars.
13 Facts About Peter Goldreich
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Peter Goldreich is the Lee DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Physics at California Institute of Technology.
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In 1963 and 1964 Peter Goldreich was a postdoctoral fellow at Cambridge University.
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Peter Goldreich joined the faculty at Caltech in 1966 as an associate professor.
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Peter Goldreich sits on the Board of Adjudicators for the Shaw Prize, and the selection committee for Astronomy Prizes.
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In 1966 Peter Goldreich published a classic paper on the evolution of the Moon's orbit and on the orbits of other moons in the Solar System.
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Peter Goldreich showed that for each planet there is a certain distance such that moons closer to the planet than that distance maintain an almost constant orbital inclination with respect to the planet's equator, whereas moons further away maintain an almost constant orbital inclination with respect to the ecliptic.
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Peter Goldreich concluded that these moons formed from equatorial accretion disks.
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Peter Goldreich collaborated with George Abell to conclude that planetary nebulae evolved from red giant stars, a view that is widely accepted.
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In 1969, Peter Goldreich published a paper together with William Julian that is considered a classic work on pulsar magnetospheres.
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In 1995, Peter Goldreich received the National Medal of Science for "his profound and lasting contributions to planetary sciences and astrophysics, providing fundamental theoretical insights for understanding the rotation of planets, the dynamics of planetary rings, pulsars, astrophysical masers, the spiral arms of galaxies, and the oscillations of the Sun".
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Peter Goldreich was awarded the Grande Medaille of the French Academy of Science in 2006 for his numerous contributions in the field of Astrophysics.
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Peter Goldreich received the 2007 Shaw Prize in Astronomy "in recognition of his lifetime achievements in theoretical astrophysics and planetary sciences".