Astrophysicist Honored with Goddard's Highest Space Science Award

Scientific endeavors are rarely associated with the imagination. But for Dr. Floyd Stecker, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the two have much in common.

Stecker, a Silver Spring, Md. resident, was recently awarded Goddard's annual John C. Lindsay Award for Space Science for his innovative series of papers that will help scientists study galaxy evolution in a new way.

"I feel honored to receive this award, not only because it's the highest award that Goddard gives for science, but also because it's hardly ever given to theorists," said Stecker.

Stecker's award-winning work provides a technique for scientists to measure infrared-optical-ultraviolet (IR-O-UV) radiation from extragalactic space that is emitted from stars and dust in galaxies.

Although the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite has measured this radiation at some infrared wavelengths, it is difficult to measure because of interference by galactic foreground radiation and radiation from dust in the solar system. So after the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) discovered blazars (gamma-ray emitting active galaxies), Stecker and his collaborators proposed an indirect way of taking these measurements.

For more on Dr. Stecker receiving the Lindsay Award, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/releases/2002/02-106.htm