Phillip D. Nicholson
Professor of Astronomy
Ph.D. 1979 (California Institute of Technology)
Campus Address:
418 Space Sciences Building
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Email: nicholso at astro.cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-8543
Specialty Areas: Planetary Sciences
Research Projects: Cassini Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer Team Member, The Irregular Satellite Systems of the Giant Planets., Dynamical Studies of Planetary Rings and Satellites
Biography: Philip Nicholson's research centers on two main areas: the orbital dynamics of planetary ring systems and natural satellites, and infrared observational studies of planets, their satellites, and their rings. His work has included studies of the ring systems of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune via Voyager observations and ground-based stellar occultations; Earth-based observations with the 5-meter Hale Telescope at Palomar of several small moons of Jupiter and Saturn discovered by the Voyager spacecraft; dynamical investigations of the planetary system around the pulsar PSR 1257 + 12, and of the rotational evolution of natural satellites; and studies of the zodiacal dust bands discovered by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite in 1983. Together with colleagues in Canada and at Harvard, he has been involved in the discovery of numerous outer satellites of Uranus, Saturn and Neptune. Nicholson is a member of the Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer science team on the NASA/ESA Cassini mission to Saturn, and was the leader of a team of Cornell and Caltech astronomers studying the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter in July 1994 using the Hale Telescope. He has served on the Committees on Planetary and Lunar Exploration and on Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Research Council, time assignment committees for the Kuiper Airborne Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, and scientific advisory committees for Arecibo and IPAC. He has coauthored review articles on planetary ring dynamics and on the Uranian and Neptunian ring systems.
Infrared images of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 bombarding Jupiter
View of prominent impacts
View directly over the South Pole of Jupiter
HST image of Saturn RPX
HST image 2 of Saturn RPX
Selected Publications: -French, R. G., P. D. Nicholson, C. C. Porco, and E. A. Marouf. "Dynamics and Structure of the Uranian Rings." In Uranus, Bergstralh, Miner, and Matthews, eds. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1991), 327-409.
-Rasio, F. A., P. D. Nicholson, S. L. Shapiro, and S. A. Teukolsky. "An Observational Test for the Existence of a Planetary System Orbiting PSR1257 + 12." Nature 355, 325-326 (1992).
-Nicholson, P. D., D. P. Hamilton, K. Matthews, and C. F. Yoder. "New Observations of Saturn's Coorbital Satellites." Icarus 100, 464-484 (1992).
-Nicholson, P. D., R. G. French, and C. A. McGhee. "Saturn's Central Flash from the 3 July 1989 Occultation of 28 Sgr." Icarus 113, 57-83 (1995).
-Nicholson, P. D., et al. "Palomar Observations of the R Impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9: I. Light Curves." Geophys. Res. Letters 22, 1613-1620 (1995).
-Nicholson, P. D., et al. "Observations of Saturn's ring-plane crossing in August and November." Science, 272, 509-516 (1996).
-Gladman, B. J., et al. "Discovery of two distant irregular moons of Uranus." Nature, 392, 897-899 (1998).
-Nicholson, P. D., et al. "Saturn's rings I. Optical depth profiles form the 28 Sgr occultation." Icarus, 145, 474-501 (2000).
-Gladman, Brett, et al. "Discovery of 12 satellites of Saturn exhibiting orbital clustering." Nature, 412, 163-166 (2001).
-McGhee, Colleen A., et al. "HST Observations of Saturian Satellites during the 1995 Ring Plane Crossings." Icarus, 152, 282-315 (2001).
