Ken Freeman (astronomer)

Kenneth Charles " Ken " Freeman ( born August 27, 1940 in Perth ) is an Australian astronomer.

Freeman studied mathematics and physics at the University of Western Australia with a bachelor's degree in 1962 and at the University of Cambridge, where he studied theoretical astrophysics at Leon Mestel and Donald Lynden - Bell, and in 1965 received his doctorate. As a post - graduate student, he was at the University of Texas at Gérard Henri de Vaucouleurs and at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. In 1967 he went back to Australia to the Mount Stromlo Observatory. He is Duffield Professor at Mount Stromlo Observatory of the Australian National University in Canberra. He is a regular guest scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

It deals with the formation and dynamics of galaxies and globular clusters and the problem of dark matter in galaxies. In 1970 he exhibited in the appendix to a work first on the need for dark matter in spiral galaxies go from studying the rotation of galaxies. Fritz Zwicky had pointed out as early as 1933, but this was forgotten. Received support Freeman's early prediction in 1978 by further investigation of the rotation of spiral galaxies with radio telescopes, extended to the interstellar gas in the galaxies and their environment.

His work from 1970 is one of his most cited papers, but for the Freeman law for spiral galaxies, which states that spiral galaxies constant surface brightness have (the law is today but as obsolete and as a selection effect), and models for the mass distribution in spiral galaxies ( Freeman disk) and less for the prediction of dark matter.

Later, he initiated a project for fast screening of the galaxy with the inclusion of about 1 million stars and their chemical composition ( Hermes at the Australian Astronomical Observatory in Sliding Spring, New South Wales). Goal is to reconstruct the evolution of our galaxy.

He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences (1981 ), the Pawsey Medal he received in 1972, and the Royal Society (1989). In 1999 he received the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. In 2012 he received the award of the Australian Prime Minister for Science and 2003, the Australian Centenary Medal. In 1994, he was Professor Oort at Leiden University and Professor Blaauw 2003 in Groningen (in which the Kapteyn Institute, he was in 1976 ).

Writings

• On the disks of spiral and S0 galaxies, Astrophysical Journal, Volume 160, 1970, pp. 811-830, online
• With Geoff McNamara In search of dark matter, Springer Verlag 2006
• Joss Bland- Hawthorn with The baryon halo of the Milky Way: A Fossil Record of Its Formation, Science, Volume 287, 2000, pp. 79-84
• Joss Bland- Hawthorn with The new galaxy: Signatures of its formation, Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 40, 2002, pp. 487-537, Arxiv