Clayton, Donald D.

Autor: Clayton, Donald D.
Rok: 1935-

Biogr./Hist. údaje: Americký astrofyzik.
Zdroj: Autoritní databáze Národní knihovny ČR

Donald Delbert Clayton (born 1935) is an American astrophysicist. His published works lay foundations for five subfields of astrophysical research: (1) the assembly by nuclear reactions inside of stars of the nuclei of the chemical elements from hot atoms of hydrogen and helium; (2) astronomy of gamma-ray lines emitted by radioactive atoms ejected by exploding stars; (3) growth of the galactic abundances of the chemical elements, especially of their radioactive nuclei, owing to birth and death of stars during the aging of the Milky Way galaxy; (4) predicting new astronomy based on the relative abundances of the isotopes of the elements measured in solid dust grains that condensed from hot gases while those gases were being ejected from stars; (5) condensation of solid carbon grains within hot, radioactive supernova gases containing more oxygen than carbon atoms. Clayton spearheaded these subfields of astronomy. He published his research works from positions at California Institute of Technology(1956–63), Rice University (1963-89), Cambridge University (1967–74), Max-Plank Institute for Nuclear Physics (1977–83), and Clemson University (1989-2014) during an international academic career spanning almost six decades (1956–2014). In 2007 Clayton retired, becoming Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University. He remains an active researcher with two new published research papers in 2013. Clayton has also authored three books outside of pure science : a novel The Joshua Factor (1985), a parable of the origin of mankind and the mystery of solar neutrinos; a late-career science autobiography, Catch a Falling Star; and an early-career memoir The Dark Night Sky, of interest because Clayton has said that he conceived of it in 1970 as layout for a movie with Italian filmmaker Roberto Rosselini about the cosmological life (See PERSONAL below). On the web Clayton has published Photo Archive for the History of Nuclear Astrophysics from his personal photographs and researched scientific captions, recording history as he lived it doing research in nuclear astrophysics.