Martha P. Haynes

Martha Patricia Haynes is an American astronomer who specializes in radio astronomy and radar astronomy. She is a professor at Cornell University ^[1]

Career

Haynes graduated from Wellesley College in 1973 with a B.A. in physics and astronomy. She went to Indiana University for graduate school. There she received her M.A. in 1975 and her Ph.D. in 1978. From 1978 until 1981 she worked at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center when she left to become the assistant director for the Green Bank Telescope. She joined the faculty at Cornell in 1983. ^[2] Haynes received together with Riccardo Giovanelli the Henry Draper Medal for the first three-dimensional view of some of the remarkable large-scale filamentary structures of our visible universe.^[3]

General research

Her main research efforts focus on the study of the evolutionary histories of spiral galaxies, especially as they are influenced by their environment. What causes the observed variations in both morphological and physical properties among the galaxy populations in different regimes of intergalactic density? Is the dark matter distribution in a galaxy affected by its location? Ongoing work includes:

1. measuring the peculiar velocity field in the local universe;

2. trying to understand the origin of lopsidedness and counter-rotation in spiral disks;

3. tracking down the mechanisms that trigger star formation in low luminosity gas-rich irregulars.

Addressing these issues requires the acquisition of observational data with a variety of telescopes and instruments, incorporating both imaging and spectroscopic data at optical, infrared, and radio wavelengths to try to formulate a coherent picture of the problem under study.

—Cornell University Staff Pages^[4]

She is involved in several research projects including observational cosmology, disk scaling relations and their applications as distance indicators and most notably ALFALFA, the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey.^[5]

ALFALFA

ALFALFA
Wavelength	21 cm
Data sources	Arecibo Observatory
Goals	finding 25,000 galaxies, discovering dark galaxies
Website ALFALFA Page

The ALFALFA research project is located at the Arecibo Observatory and started on February 4th 2005. It is still ongoing (March 2009). The name is the abbreviation of Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA. ALFA is the abbreviation of Arecibo L-Band Feed Array.^[6]

The ALFA is a seven pixel detector and thus seven times faster than the previously used one pixel detectors. It is utilized in combination with the Arecibo Observatory telescope, a 305 meter radio telescope, which is currently (March 2009) the largest single dish telescope in the world and therefore offers better resolution and sensitivity.^[7][8]

The speed of the ALFA permits it to survey large areas of the sky quickly, while the telescope provides unequalled sensitivity. With the seven feeds it is also possible to detect structures which are too big to be seen with radio interferometers or single-pixel detectors.^[9][10]

The ALFALFA survey is a blind extragalactic survey in neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) utilizing the ALFA at Arecibo Observatory. The telescope is not directed at preselected targets, but at one location for one night, allowing the sky to pass. This is called drift-scan. The goal is to find up to 25,000 galaxies in the course of 6-7 years. Some of the detected objects should be dark galaxies, consisting largely of dark matter and in this case hydrogen gas, but no or very few stars. These galaxies are not visible with optical telescopes and yet (March 2009) undiscovered.^[11][12]

Similar projects are HIPASS and HIJASS.^[13]

Selected affiliations

1994-ongoing member of the Board of Trustees, Associated Universities, Inc

2003-2007 member of the Advisory Committee for the Division of Engineering and Physical Sciences of the National Academies

2004-2006 chair of the 2005 Radio and Submillimeter Astronomy Planning Group

2006-ongoing vice president of the International Astronomical Union

2008 chair of the Provost Search Committee, Cornell University

2008-ongoing member of the Board on Physics and Astronomy (previously served in 1991-1993)

2008-ongoing vice chair of the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey Committee, National Research Council^[14]

Honors and fellowships

1989 Henry Draper Medal, National Academy of Sciences

1993 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Advising, College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University

1999 elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

2000 elected to National Academy of Sciences

2000 elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of the Sciences

2002 elected Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University

2007 Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin lecturer, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

2008 Lyman Spitzer Jr. Lecturer, Princeton University^[2]

Selected publications

Haynes, M. P., and R. Giovanelli. "Large-Scale Structure in the Local Universe: The Pisces-Perseus Supercluster." In Large-Scale Motions in the Universe, V. C. Rubin and G. F. Coyne, eds. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 45.

Haynes, M. P. "Evidence for Gas Deficiency in Cluster Galaxies." In Clusters of Galaxies, W. R. Oegerle, M. J. Fitchett, and L. Danly, eds. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 177.

Vogt, N. P., T. Herter, M. P. Haynes, and S. Courteau. "The Rotation Curves of Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift." Ap. J. Letters 415 (1993).

Roberts, M. S., and M. P. Haynes. "Variation of Physical Properties along the Hubble Sequence." Ann. Rev. Astron. Ap. 32, 115 (1994).

Haynes, M. P., and A. H. Broeils. "Cool HI Disks in Galaxies." In Gas Disks in Galaxies, J. M. van der Hulst, ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1995), to appear.^[15]

References

1. ^ Cornell University Staff Pages Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Vita Martha Patricia Haynes". http://astrosun2.astro.cornell.edu/~haynes/cv/mphvita.pdf. Retrieved 24 February 2011. 
3. ^ NAS Henry Draper Medal Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
4. ^ Cornell University Staff Pages Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
5. ^ Cornell University Staff Pages Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
6. ^ ALFALFA Page Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
7. ^ ALFALFA Blog About Page Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
8. ^ NAIC's ALFA Extragalactic HI Studies Page Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
9. ^ ALFALFA Blog About Page Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
10. ^ NAIC's ALFA Extragalactic HI Studies Page Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
11. ^ ALFALFA Blog About Page Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
12. ^ ALFALFA Page for non-experts Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
13. ^ ALFALFA Page Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
14. ^ Martha P. Haynes Personal Page Retrieved on 2009-03-08.
15. ^ Cornell University Staff Pages Retrieved on 2009-03-08.

External links

• Martha P. Haynes Personal Page
• ALFALFA Page
• ALFALFA Blog
• Cornell University: Department of Astronomy
• National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center: Arecibo Observatory

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Name	Haynes, Martha P.
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