There is another long-period comet West: C/1978 A1 (a.k.a. 1977 IX, 1978a).

C/1975 V1 (West)

Comet West on March 9, 1976
Discovery
Discovered by:	Richard M. West
Discovery date:	August 10, 1975
Alternative designations:	C/1975 V1, 1976 VI, 1975n
Orbital characteristics A
Epoch:	1976-Mar-03 (JD 2442840.5)[1]
Aphelion:	up to 70,000 AU[2] (1.1 light-years)
Perihelion:	0.197 AU[1][3]
Eccentricity:	0.99997[1] (near parabolic)
Orbital period:	chaotic (more than 250 thousand years and maybe millions of years)
Inclination:	43.0664°[1]
Last perihelion:	February 25, 1976[1][3]
Next perihelion:	unknown

Comet West formally designated C/1975 V1, 1976 VI, and 1975n, was a spectacular comet, sometimes considered to qualify for the status of "great comet".^[4]

History[link]

It was discovered photographically by Richard M. West, of the European Southern Observatory, on August 10, 1975. The comet came to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on February 25, 1976.^[1] During perihelion the comet had a minimum solar elongation of 6.4° and as a result of forward scattering reached a peak brightness of -3.^[3] From February 25th through the 27th, observers reported that the comet was bright enough to study during full daylight.^[3]

Despite its spectacular appearance, Comet West went largely unreported in the popular media. This was partly due to the relatively disappointing display of Comet Kohoutek in 1973, which had been widely predicted to become extremely prominent: scientists were wary of making predictions that might raise public expectations.^[5]

Period[link]

With a nearly parabolic trajectory, estimates for the orbital period of this comet have varied from 254,000^[3] to 558,000 years,^[6] and even as high as 6.5 million years.^[2] Computing the best-fit orbit for this long-period comet is made more difficult since it underwent a splitting event which may have caused a non-gravitational perturbation of the orbit. The 2008 SAO Catalog of Cometary Orbits shows 195 observations for C/1975 V1 and 135 for C/1975 V1-A, for a combined total of 330 (218 observations were used in the fit). Comet C/1999 F1 has a similar period.

Breakup[link]

Prior to the perihelion passage, and using 28 positions obtained between 1975 August 10 and 1976 January 27, Comet West was estimated to have an orbital period of about 254 thousand years.^[3] As the comet passed within 30 million km of the Sun, the nucleus was observed to split into four fragments.

The first report of the split came around 7 March 1976 12:30UT, when reports were received that the comet had broken into two pieces. Astronomer Steven O'Meara, using the 9-inch Harvard Refractor, reported that two additional fragments had formed on the morning of 18 March.

The fragmentation of the nucleus was, at the time, one of very few comet breakups observed, one of the most notable previous examples being the Great Comet of 1882, a member of the Kreutz Sungrazing 'family' of comets. More recently, comets Schwassmann-Wachmann-3 (73/P), C/1999 S4 LINEAR, and 57/P du Toit-Neujmin-Delporte, have been observed to disintegrate during their passage close to the Sun.

It has been more than 50AU from the Sun since 2003.

Nomenclature[link]

In the nomenclature of the time, it was known as Comet 1976 VI or Comet 1975n, but the modern nomenclature is C/1975 V1. (Note that "1976 VI" uses the Roman numeral VI = 6, while "C/1975 V1" is the letter V and the number 1).

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Comet West (C/1975 V1)

Brian Schmidt
Born	Brian P. Schmidt (1967-02-24) February 24, 1967 (age 45) Missoula, Montana, United States
Nationality	Australia and United States[1]
Institutions	Australian National University
Alma mater	University of Arizona (1989), Harvard University (1993)
Doctoral advisor	Robert Kirshner
Notable awards	Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2006) Nobel Prize in Physics (2011)
Spouse	Jennifer M. Gordon
Notes "FACTBOX-Nobel physics prize winners", Reuters News, 4 October 2011.

Brian P. Schmidt FRS (born February 24, 1967) is a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at The Australian National University Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes. He currently holds an Australia Research Council Federation Fellowship and was elected to the Royal Society in 2012^[2]. Schmidt shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess for providing evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Early life and education[link]

Interview with Brian Schmidt after his Nobel lecture

Schmidt, an only child, was born on February 24, 1967, in Missoula, Montana, where his father Dana C. Schmidt was a fisheries biologist. When he was 13, his family relocated to Anchorage, Alaska.^[3][4]

Schmidt attended Bartlett High School in Anchorage, Alaska, and graduated in 1985. He has said that he wanted to be a meteorologist "since I was about five-years-old" but "... I did some work at the USA National Weather Service up in Anchorage and didn't enjoy it very much. It was less scientific, not as exciting as I thought it would be—there was a lot of routine. But I guess I was just a little naive about what being a meteorologist meant." His decision to study astronomy, which he had seen as "a minor pastime", was made just before he enrolled at university.^[5] He earned his BS (Physics) and BS (Astronomy) from the University of Arizona in 1989.^[6] He received his MA (1992) and then PhD from Harvard University in 1993.^[7] Schmidt's PhD thesis was supervised by Robert Kirshner and used Type II Supernovae to measure the Hubble Constant.

At Harvard, he met his future wife, the Australian (Jenny) Jennifer M. Gordon who was a PhD student in economics. In 1994, he moved to Australia.^[3][6]

Work[link]

Schmidt was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1993–1994) before moving on to Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1995.

In 1994, Schmidt and Nicholas B. Suntzeff formed the High-Z Supernova Search Team to measure the expected deceleration of the Universe and the deceleration parameter q0 using distances to Type Ia supernovae. In 1995, the HZT at a meeting at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics elected Schmidt as the overall leader of the HZT. Schmidt led the team from Australia and in 1998 in the HZT paper with first author Adam Riess the first evidence was presented that the Universe's expansion rate is accelerating.^[8] The team's observations were contrary to the current theory that the expansion of the Universe should be slowing down; on the contrary, by monitoring the brightness and measuring the redshift of the supernovae, they discovered that these billion-year old exploding stars and their galaxies were accelerating away from our reference frame.^[9] This result was also found nearly simultaneously by the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter.^[9] The corroborating evidence between the two competing studies led to the acceptance of the accelerating universe theory and initiated new research to understand the nature of the universe, such as the existence of dark energy.^[9] The discovery of the accelerating universe was named 'Breakthrough of the Year' by Science Magazine in 1998, and Schmidt was jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Reiss and Perlmutter for their groundbreaking work.^[9]

Schmidt is currently leading the SkyMapper telescope Project and the associated Southern Sky Survey.

Awards[link]

Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess, and Brian Schmidt being awarded the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy. The trio would later be awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Schmidt has received the Australian Government's Malcolm McIntosh Prize in 2000, Harvard University's Bok Prize in 2000, the Australian Academy of Science's Pawsey Medal Medal in 2001, and the Vainu Bappu Medal of the Astronomical Society of India in 2002. He was the Marc Aaronson Memorial Lecturer in 2005, and, in 2006, he shared the Shaw Prize in Astronomy with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter.^[10][11]

Schmidt and the other members of the High-Z Team (the set defined by the co-authors of Riess et al. 1998) shared the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize, a $500,000 award, with Saul Perlmutter of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Supernova Cosmology Project (the set defined by the co-authors of Perlmutter et al. 1999) for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Schmidt, along with Riess and Perlmutter, jointly won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for their observations which led to the discovery of the accelerating Universe.^[10]

Hobbies[link]

Schmidt makes wine and enjoys cooking.^[3] He and his wife are owners of the winery Maipenrai^[12], a winery in Sutton Australia which has been rated a four-star winery^[13]. At the 2011 Nobel Prize Ceremonies in Stockholm, he presented the King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden with a bottle of his wine.

See also[link]

• Cosmological constant
• Dark energy

References[link]

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ http://royalsociety.org/people/brian-schmidt/
3. ^ ^{a b c} Restless experimenter The Canberra Times, 6 April 2011, p 8.
4. ^ "FACTBOX-Nobel physics prize winners", Reuters News, 4 October 2011.
5. ^ "Star turn in global success", The Canberra Times, 1 July 2006, p B02.
6. ^ ^{a b} "SCHMIDT, Brian" in Who's Who Live (Australia), Crown Content Pty Ltd accessed 4 October 2011.
7. ^ The Universe from Beginning to End, Pollock Memorial Lecture, April 2009, The University of Sydney accessed 5 October 2011.
8. ^ Cosmology ABC Catalyst segment on Cosmology, with Brian Schmidt, Ray Norris, & Lawrence Krauss
9. ^ ^{a b c d} Palmer, Jason (2011-10-04). "Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15165371. Retrieved 2011-10-05. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find". BBC News. October 4, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15165371. 
11. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-04/australian-astrophysicist-wins-nobel-prize/3209216%7Ctitle= Australian Astrophysicist Wins Nobel Prize
12. ^ http://www.maipenrai.com.au/
13. ^ http://www.winecompanion.com.au/

Sources[link]

• Brian P Schmidt - Curriculum Vitae

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brian Schmidt

• Brian Schmidt's Home Page
• Nobel Prize in Phyics 2011 Announcement

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2010)

Noah Lindsey Cyrus (born January 8, 2000) is an American child actress. Noah Cyrus followed the footsteps of older sister Miley Cyrus also an actress and landed her first job portraying Gracie Herbert in television series Doc at age three.

Personal life[link]

Cyrus was born in Nashville, Tennessee as the youngest child of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and Leticia "Tish" Cyrus. Cyrus has two sisters, Miley and Brandi, and three brothers Trace, Christopher (paternal half-brother) and Braison.

Acting career[link]

Cyrus began her career at age three playing "Gracie Hebert" for six episodes of the television show Doc. She was a background dancer in the 2009 film Hannah Montana: The Movie and played small roles in six episodes of the Disney Channel Original Series, Hannah Montana.^[1] She appeared in the straight-to-DVD movie Mostly Ghostly where she was spotted as a Trick or Treater.^[2] Her first movie role took place in 2009 in the anime feature film Ponyo where she voiced the main character (Ponyo) in the English adaptation. She sang the English version of the theme song to the film with Frankie Jonas.^[3][4]

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Noah Cyrus at the Internet Movie Database

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