Jeff Hester
Professor
School of Earth and Space Exploration
Box 871404
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ 85287-1404

480-965-0741

jhester@asu.edu

Race for the Cure

Vicki was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2005. She underwent surgery in March, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. Her prognosis looks very good, but this journey through the realities of breast cancer has given us a new perspective on life. This October 8, 2006 we participated for the second year in the Race for the Cure, raising over $1,000 support for the search for a cure to this devastating disease that has reached epidemic proportions among American women. Thank you to all those who offered their support.

Hurricane Wilma
Cozumel, Mexico / October, 2005

A trip to Cozumel for some diving following Vicki's cancer turned into an Odyssey, as we found ourselves trapped on the island for a week by Hurricane Wilma.

Many stories of that week might be told, but the story that most deserves telling is the story of the resilience, civility, resourcefulness, and humanity of the residents of that beautiful island.

Current Research Interests Include:

Where did the Sun Form? If you are a student of low-mass star formation, the answer may surprise you...

Recent work on meteorites provides compelling evidence for the presence of neutron-rich iron-60 in the early Solar System. This short-lived radionuclide could only have been produced by a nearby supernova, which firmly places the young Sun in a rich cluster containing massive stars. Here are a few recent references to this work:

"The Cradle of the Solar System", J. J. Hester, S. J. Desch, K. R. Healy, & L. A. Leshin 2004, Science, 304, 1116.

"Understanding or Origins: Star Formation in H II Region Environments," J. J. Hester & S. J. Desch 2005, "Chondrules and the Protoplanetary Disk," ASP Conf. Ser. Vol. 341, A. N. Krot, E. R. D. Scott, & B. Reipurth, eds., p107

Barringer Lecture, PDF of keynote address to the 2005 Meteoritical Society meeting, Gatlinberg, TN, September 12, 2005 (11 Mb file)

This is not your advisor's Crab Nebula

• If you think that the Crab Nebula is a free expansion supernova remnant, or that what you see of the Crab is all that there is, think again. Everything that you see in the picture at left is the result of the confined pulsar wind pushing its way outward through a much larger unseen remnant of freely expanding ejecta.

Interests include:

• Structure and dynamics of the Crab Synchrotron Nebula
• Ionization structure of thermal ejecta
• Interaction of the synchrotron nebula and a larger, freely expanding supernova remnant
• I am currently (Fall 2007) working on a review of the Crab Nebula for Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics. I will post a draft of the paper here when it is available. Colleagues are welcome to comment.

The interaction of massive stars with their environments

• H II region structure
• Photoionized photoevaporative flows at H II region / molecular cloud interfaces
• The presence and effects of highly stratified ionization structure
• Structure imposed by winds from massive stars
   

I told you so...

The following political commentaries are badly out of date. To be truthful, the situation has become so outrageous that there seems little point in posting new material. If you can't see for yourself just how totally and completely the current administration has f***ed (that is, "fouled") up, then there is perhaps little point in my filling you in now. I'm leaving these here, though, because for the most part they demonstrate a remarkable degree of prescience, if I do say so myself. I might point you in particular to the discussion of our little adventure in Iraq -- discussions posted at about the time of the invasion.

Use your brain NOW before Ashcroft makes that illegal, too.

I know that it is considered unpatriotic these days to worry about facts and the niceties of cogent argument, but what can I say? Over the years I've sort of gotten into the habit of actually using the brain cells located between my ears, and it is kind of hard to stop now. So, for your consideration, a few links which are, in my opinion, worth a look or two.

(Note. These links predate the delibrations of the 9/11 Commission and the spate of recent behind-the-scenes books. Even so, I think they remain of interest.)

• Life imitates satire. Should we have seen the current mess coming? This article Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity is Finally Over' from The Onion was published on January 18, 2001, but it could just as easily have been last week's headline in the New York Times. (If the link above fails, the article is available locally here.
   
• Bin Laden's Victory -- If you have any interest in how most intelligent, well educated people around the world view the United States, this March 2003 Guardian article by Richard Dawkins does a reasonable job of expressing what is being said over and over again around the world. (Local version here.)
   
• Why did we go to war in Iraq? Mostly because US propaganda has convinced people that the 9/11 terrorists were Iraqi. (In case you are confused, the terrorists were citizens of our good and staunch oil field... er... friend, Saudi Arabia.)
  
• Should we have known before the invasion of Iraq that there were no WMDs, that there were no ties between Hussein and Al Qaeda, and that the reasons we were being given for the war were specious? Yes.
  
  In my undergraduate classes I stress the process of critical thought -- specifically the idea that knowledge is built by challenging theories with data and observation. The following two links (Logical Analysis of the Motivations for the War in Iraq, More on the Root Causes of the War) dating from March 2003 apply these tools to the case being made at the time, and conclude that the administration was misrepresenting the case for war.
   
• The Institute for Public Accuracy's analysis of the 2003 State of the Union Address and Bush's October 7 Speech on Iraq.
   
• Who are the real fiscal conservatives? Click here to find out.
   
• A Field Guide to Critical Thinking, by James Lett, as published on the web by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
   
• Congratulations to former President Jimmy Carter, the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, and to the Nobel Committee for openly stating that the prize "must be interpreted as a criticism of the present U.S. administration."
   
• I had an interesting exchange with Arizona Republic editorial columnist Doug MacEachern over the issue of Colin Powell's service as Secretary of State. My response to Mr. MacEachern is posted here. (OK, it's a scree, but some things are deserving of a scree or two... If you followed the link in the on-line version of the December 5, 2004 Republic, this is what you are looking for.) My published editorial is posted here.

21st Century Astronomy

The second edition of "Twenty-First Century Astronomy" was published by W. W. Norton and Company in the winter of 2006. This is a textbook designed for introductory non-major astronomy courses, that has also been well received by a broader public audience. The raison d'etre of the book is to offer the reader a sense for science as a human endeavour, while at the same time presenting a strongly conceptual and yet accessible treatment of modern astronomy, physics, an planetary science.

Hiking in the Superstitions with students can be an adventure...

Life away from Science and/or Politics

(I really need to update this section!)

SCUBA

Vicki and I have been SCUBA diving since 1988. Our three daughters have been diving since 2001.

I finally got around to buying an underwater housing for a digital camera a couple of years ago, so can now subject you to the fruits of my photographic efforts.

Communicating Science to the Public

(I really need to update this section, too!)

  Chandra and HST Movies of the Crab Nebula
  Results of coordinated Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope images of the Crab synchrotron nebula were released in a Space Science Update on September 19, 2002. The release presents moves of the interior of the Crab made using the two observatories. The Astrophysical Journal Letters Paper appeared in the September 20 issue.

Here and Now on KJZZ

I enjoyed my talk with Terry Ward on Here and Now, which aired on NPR station KJZZ Wednesday morning, April 21, 2004. You can listen to a recording of the broadcast.

Click here for a few of the images that were posted for discussion.