- Roger Cayrel
Roger Victor Emile Cayrel (born
4 December ,1925 ,Bordeaux , France) is a Frenchastronomer . His main interests arestellar atmosphere s, galactic chemical evolution andmetal-poor stars.He attended the "Lycée Michel-Montaigne" in Bordeaux and studied physics at the
École normale supérieure and the "Faculté des sciences de Paris".Beside his scentific work, he had a number of high-ranking posts in the management of science: director of the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT, 1974-1980), president of theIAU commission on stellar atmospheres (1973-1976) and head of theBureau des Longitudes (1995-1996).Cayrel has ben a corresponding member of the
Académie des Sciences since 1988.Cayrel and his colleagues discovered
thorium anduranium in the ultra-metal-poor halo star BPS CS31082-0001, which was namedCayrel's Star to honour him. From the thorium and uranium content, an age of 12.5 Billion years could be calculated.Since 1954, he has been married to the astronomer
Giusa de Strobel .References
* Cayrel, R.; Hill, V.; Beers, T. C.; Barbuy, B.; Spite, M.; Spite, F.; Plez, B.; Andersen, J.; Bonifacio, P.; François, P.; Molaro, P.; Nordström, B.; Primas, F., Measurement of stellar age from uranium decay, Nature, Volume 409, Issue 6821, pp. 691-692 (2001)
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