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21-558: It was discovered in 1981 by Robert Kirshner as part of a survey of galactic redshifts. Its centre is located 700 million light-years from Earth, and at approximately right ascension 14 50 and declination 46°. The Hercules Supercluster forms part of the near edge of the void. There are no major apparent inconsistencies between the existence of the Boötes Void and the Lambda-CDM model of cosmological evolution. The Boötes Void

42-731: A Bowdoin Prize for Useful and Polite Literature. He earned his Ph.D. , also in Astronomy , from Caltech in 1975. He then worked as a postdoc at the Kitt Peak National Observatory , before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he rose to become Professor and Chairman of the Astronomy Department and helped to build the 2.4 meter Hiltner Telescope. Whilst at Michigan, he received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship and won

63-664: A High-Z team publication that used the Hubble Space Telescope to study three high-redshift supernovae. These results indicated that the universe did not contain enough matter to halt its expansion and that the universe would likely expand forever. In a May 1998 study led by Adam Riess, the High-Z Team became the first to publish evidence that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating . The team later spawned Project ESSENCE led by Christopher Stubbs of Harvard University and

84-530: Is 108. Kirshner was a member of the High-Z Supernova Search Team that used observations of distant supernovae to discover the accelerating universe . This universal acceleration implies the existence of dark energy and was named the breakthrough of 1998 by Science magazine. For this work, he also shared in the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize . Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess , both of whom were among Kirshner's nineteen Ph.D students, shared in

105-762: Is a Fellow of the American Physical Society ; a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science ; and an Inaugural Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. In 1999, Kirshner married the novelist and filmmaker Jayne Loader . From 2001–2007, they were the Masters of Quincy House , one of Harvard 's 12 undergraduate houses. He is the father of the television writer/producer, Rebecca Rand Kirshner , and Matthew Kirshner,

126-712: Is an observer on the Thirty Meter International Observatory board of directors. In 1981, along with Augustus Oemler, Jr., Paul Schechter , and Stephen Shectman, Kirshner discovered the Boötes Void in a survey of galaxy redshifts . He led work on SN 1987A , the brightest supernova since Kepler's in 1604, using the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite in 1987 and the Hubble Space Telescope after its launch in 1990. In

147-604: Is represented by Jodi Soloman Speakers. He has been frequently interviewed by both mainstream journalists and the science press and is often quoted in the New York Times , the Washington Post , Nature , and Science magazine. He has written for the general public in National Geographic , Sky & Telescope , Natural History , and Scientific American . Kirshner's service to science includes board memberships for

168-410: Is theorized to have formed from the merger of smaller voids, much like the way in which soap bubbles coalesce to form larger bubbles. This would account for the small number of galaxies that populate a roughly tube-shaped region running through the middle of the void. The Boötes Void has been often associated with images of Barnard 68 , a dark nebula that does not allow light to pass through; however,

189-747: The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the same discovery. His account of this discovery is described in The Extravagant Universe ;: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos (2002; ISBN   978-0-691-05862-7 ) which has been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese and Czech. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1998, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1992 and

210-677: The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. The original team submitted a proposal on September 29, 1994 called A Pilot Project to Search for Distant Type Ia Supernova to the CTIO. The team on the first observing proposal comprised: Nicholas Suntzeff (PI); Brian Schmidt (Co-I); (other Co-Is) R. Chris Smith, Robert Schommer , Mark M. Phillips , Mario Hamuy , Roberto Aviles, Jose Maza, Adam Riess , Robert Kirshner , Jason Spyromilio, and Bruno Leibundgut . The project

231-492: The 1990s, together with Oemler, Schechter, Shectman and others he participated in the Las Campanas Redshift Survey, a pioneering 35,000 galaxy survey using fiber optics and plug plates. Kirshner is a co-author of 392 refereed articles in major astronomical journals that deal principally with supernova explosions and the application of supernovae to cosmology. His work has been cited over 57,000 times, and his h-index

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252-827: The American Philosophical Society since 2005. He was the President of the American Astronomical Society from 2004–2006. In 2004, he received the Caltech Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2010, he received an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Chicago. In 2011, he won the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics from the American Institute of Physics. In 2012, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship . In 2014, he won

273-516: The CFO/GM of Format Entertainment in Los Angeles. High-Z Supernova Search Team The High-Z Supernova Search Team was an international cosmology collaboration which used Type Ia supernovae to chart the expansion of the universe . The team was formed in 1994 by Brian P. Schmidt , then a post-doctoral research associate at Harvard University, and Nicholas B. Suntzeff , a staff astronomer at

294-481: The Clownes Research Professor of Science at Harvard University . Kirshner has worked in several areas of astronomy including the physics of supernovae , supernova remnants , the large-scale structure of the cosmos , and the use of supernovae to measure the expansion of the universe . Kirshner received his A.B. magna cum laude in Astronomy from Harvard College in 1970, where he also won

315-1045: The Gemini International Telescope, the AUI Board for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy, the National Research Council Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics, the NASA Advisory Committee Science Subcommittee, and the Math and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee for the National Science Foundation. Kirshner was a panelist for the 2000 and 2010 Decadal Reviews of Astronomy. He

336-796: The Henry Russel Award. In 1985, he moved to the Harvard Astronomy Department as Professor of Astronomy (1985–2016), where he served as Chairman of the Department from 1990–1997 and as the head of the Optical and Infrared Division of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian . from 1997–2003. He was appointed Clownes Professor of Science in 2001, Master of Quincy House, one of Harvard’s undergraduate residences, from 2001–2007 and Harvard College Professor (2004–2009). He helped Harvard join

357-766: The James Craig Watson Medal for service to astronomy from the National Academy of Sciences and shared in the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with the High-Z Team. In 2015, he shared the Wolf Prize in Physics with B.J. Bjorken. In 2019, he received an honorary Doctor of Science from Ohio University. He is a popular writer and speaker both in the United States and internationally, and

378-582: The Magellan Observatory in Chile and the Giant Magellan Telescope project. In July, 2015 he was appointed Chief Program Officer for Science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, where he is leading the team responsible for distributing more than $ 100 million per year for research and technology that enables fundamental scientific discoveries. At the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Kirshner

399-678: The United States, Europe, Australia, and Chile. They used the Víctor M. Blanco telescope to discover Type Ia supernovae out to redshifts of z = 0.9. The discoveries were verified with spectra taken mostly from the telescopes of the Keck Observatory , and the European Southern Observatory . In January 1998, Notre Dame astrophysicist Peter Garnavich , then working at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , led

420-458: The images of Barnard 68 are much darker than those observed of the Boötes Void, as the nebula is much closer and there are fewer stars in front of it, as well as its being a physical mass that blocks light passing through. Robert Kirshner Robert P. Kirshner (born August 15, 1949) is an American astronomer, Chief Program Officer for Science for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation , and

441-657: Was awarded four nights of telescope time on the CTIO Víctor M. Blanco Telescope on the nights of February 25, 1995, and March 6, 24, and 29, 1995. The pilot project led to the discovery of supernova SN1995Y. In 1995, the HZT elected Brian P. Schmidt of the Mount Stromlo Observatory which is part of the Australian National University to manage the team. The team expanded to roughly 20 astronomers located in

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