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Peter J. Young - Wikipedia

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Peter J. Young

Born	(1954-07-31)July 31, 1954 England
Died	September 5, 1981(1981-09-05) (aged 27) Pasadena
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Known for	Discovery of intergalactic medium; detection of black hole in M87; gravitational lensing and microlensing
Scientific career
Fields	Cosmology, Astrophysics
Institutions	California Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisor	Wallace Sargent

Peter John Young (31 July 1954—5 September 1981) was a British astrophysicist who made major contributions to extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. He obtained his PhD from California Institute of Technology in 1981. His contributions include the discovery of the intergalactic medium, the detection of a supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87, the identification of the optical counterpart to the first gravitational lens, and the theory of gravitational microlensing.

Early life and education

Educated at Leeds Grammar School,^[1] Young studied mathematics at St John's College, Cambridge (1972-1975), where he was Senior Wrangler (highest-placed First Class degree) in 1975. He obtained a master's degree in astronomy under the supervision of Gerard de Vaucouleurs at the University of Texas, Austin in 1976. He then began his PhD at the California Institute of Technology under the supervision of Wallace Sargent.^[2] He completed this degree in 18 months and was employed for a further year as a postdoctoral researcher. He joined the Caltech faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1979, aged 25.^[2]

Scientific achievements

Young and his PhD supervisor Wallace Sargent worked with Alexander Boksenberg and made use of the Mount Palomar 200-inch Hale Telescope with Boksenberg's Image Photon Counting Spectrograph (IPCS), the first photon-counting device used in astronomy, to conduct research. ^[3]

In 1978, Young et al.^[4] and Sargent et al.^[5] provided photometric and spectroscopic evidence for a supermassive black hole in the nucleus of the elliptical galaxy M87. This object was latterly revealed via direct high-resolution imaging by the Event Horizon Telescope.^[6]

In 1980, Sargent, Young, Boksenberg, and Tytler^[7] studied the Lyman-alpha forest in the rest-frame ultraviolet portion of quasar spectra, concluding that it arose from absorption by a cosmological distribution of partly ionized neutral Hydrogen. They also established the existence of the intergalactic medium. Also in 1980, Young et al. identified the galaxy responsible for the first gravitational lens, the Double Quasar Q0957+561. This paper produced the first detailed mass models for a cosmological lensing event.^[8]

In 1981, Young realized that the multiple images in Q0957+561 would be affected by the gravitational fields of a large number of stars in the lensing galaxy, leading to rapid fluctuations in the magnification of the quasar images.^[9] His theoretical study of these superimposed gravitational deflections helped initiate the subject of gravitational microlensing.^[9]^{[dubious – discuss]}

By the time of his death after five years at Caltech, Young had written 33 papers.^[2]^{[dubious – discuss]}

Death

On 5 September 1981,^[2] Young committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide which he had obtained from a chemistry stockroom at the university.^[10] According to Sargent and Peter Goldreich, Young had suffered from depression and psychological issues since his time at Cambridge and had previously talked about killing himself.^[2]^[10]

References

^ "New astronomy prize dedicated to former pupil with star quality". The Grammar School at Leeds. November 29, 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Physics, American Institute of (September 24, 2021). "Wallace Sargent - Session II". www.aip.org.
^ Boksenberg, A.; Burgess, D. E. (1972-01-01), McGee, J. D.; McMullan, D.; Kahan, E. (eds.), "An Image Photon Counting System for Optical Astronomy", Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics, Photo-Electronic Image Devices, vol. 33, Academic Press, pp. 835–849, doi:10.1016/s0065-2539(08)60798-2, ISBN 978-0-12-014553-9, retrieved 2025-01-10
^ Young, P. J.; Westphal, J. A.; Kristian, J.; Wilson, C. P.; Landauer, F. P. (May 1, 1978). "Evidence for a supermassive object in the nucleus of the galaxy M87 from SIT and CCD area photometry". The Astrophysical Journal. 221: 721–730. Bibcode:1978ApJ...221..721Y. doi:10.1086/156076 – via NASA ADS.
^ Sargent, W. L. W.; Young, P. J.; Boksenberg, A.; Shortridge, K.; Lynds, C. R.; Hartwick, F. D. A. (May 1, 1978). "Dynamical evidence for a central mass concentration in the galaxy M87". The Astrophysical Journal. 221: 731–744. Bibcode:1978ApJ...221..731S. doi:10.1086/156077.
^ The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (2019-04-10). "First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 875 (1): L1. arXiv:1906.11238. Bibcode:2019ApJ...875L...1E. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ab0ec7. ISSN 2041-8205.
^ Sargent, W. L. W.; Young, P. J.; Boksenberg, A.; Tytler, D. (January 1, 1980). "The distribution of Lyman-alpha absorption lines in the spectra of six QSOs: evidence for an intergalactic origin". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 42: 41–81. Bibcode:1980ApJS...42...41S. doi:10.1086/190644.
^ Young, P.; Gunn, J. E.; Kristian, J.; Oke, J. B.; Westphal, J. A. (October 1, 1980). "The double quasar Q0957+561 A, B: a gravitational lens image formed by a galaxy at z=0.39". The Astrophysical Journal. 241: 507–520. Bibcode:1980ApJ...241..507Y. doi:10.1086/158365.
^ ^a ^b Young, P. (March 1, 1981). "Q0957+561 : effects of random stars on the gravitational lens". The Astrophysical Journal. 244: 756–767. Bibcode:1981ApJ...244..756Y. doi:10.1086/158752.
^ ^a ^b Goldreich, Peter (November 12, 2002). "Interview with Peter Goldreich". resolver.caltech.edu.

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