RARE "Infrared Astronomy Pioneer” Frank J. Low Hand Signed 1X5 Card for Sale

RARE "Infrared Astronomy Pioneer” Frank J. Low Hand Signed 1X5 Card For Sale

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

RARE "Infrared Astronomy Pioneer” Frank J. Low Hand Signed 1X5 Card:
$399.99

Up for sale a RARE! "Infrared Astronomy" Frank J. Low Hand Signed 1X5 Card.

ES-9282

Frank

James Low (November 23,

1933 – June 11, 2009) was a solid state physicist who became a leader in the new field of infrared astronomy, after

inventing the gallium doped germanium bolometer in 1961. This detector extended the range of

the observable spectrum to much longer wavelengths. Born on November 23, 1933

in Mobile, Alabama, Low grew

up as a child in Houston, Texas.

His undergraduate studies in physics were at Yale University and he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree

in physics from Rice University in

1959. He

started working at Texas Instruments in 1961, where one of his early

projects was the development of a low-temperature thermometer that was

developed using a germanium semiconductor that had been doped with small

quantities of gallium, which measured changes in

temperature based on the change in the device's electrical resistance as energy

was absorbed. Based on his academic experiences, he came to the conclusion that

the technology behind this thermometer could be integrated as the basis for a

bolometer that could be used to measure the radiant energy coming from stars

as infrared radiation, waves that occupy a portion of the

electromagnetic spectrum whose wavelength is longer than for visible light

(400–700 nm), but shorter than those of terahertz radiation (100 µm

– 1 mm) or microwaves. Astronomers

had been trying to find measures to detect infrared radiation for years, and

Low went to the National

Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia in

1962 to test his bolometer, more sensitive to infrared than detectors

previously in use on the Green Bank Telescope, the

world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. However, infrared waves are

absorbed by molecules such as water vapor in the atmosphere. To

avoid atmospheric absorption of infrared radiation, Low developed devices that

could be placed aboard aircraft, first using a Douglas A-3 Skywarrior from the United States Navy that

carried a 2-inch telescope in 1965 and 1966, and later using a Learjet operated by NASA with

a 12-inch telescope on board. Low used the Learjet to make the discovery emitting more energy than what they receive

as solar radiation, demonstrating that both of these planets must have an

internal source of energy. Low continued to use the Learjet for research, even

after NASA started use of the Kuiper Airborne

Observatory in 1975 using a former C-141 Starlifter cargo

craft, which is to be replaced with Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA),

a joint NASA and German Aerospace Center project

that uses a converted Boeing 747SP. He

had worked at Rice University and at the University of Arizona. He

was also the president of Infrared Laboratories, Inc., which he founded in 1967

to make infrared detectors and cryostats for observatories and infrared microscopes as

well. He proposed and joined the international project to build the Infrared Astronomy

Satellite (IRAS), a project that included joint efforts from

the United States, United Kingdom and

the Netherlands, which made the first survey of the infrared sky

from space, avoiding all atmospheric interference with observations, starting

in 1983. Low served as the chief technologist for the project. After an

accident at Jet Propulsion in the infrared detectors, Low led an

effort at Infrared Laboratories to develop improved replacement units to

resolve the crisis. IRAS was able to discover in excess of 500,000 infrared

sources, including many galaxies, and has discovered shells of debris

surrounding stars that show the early stages of planetary formation, with

debris similar to that later found as the Kuiper belt that encircles our Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune. Based on these findings, researchers have concluded

that the majority of galactic radiation is emitted in the form of infrared

radiation that is generated when light from young stars is absorbed by interstellar dust and then radiated from the dust in the

form of heat. In 1984, IRAS found that the galaxy Arp 220, located 300 million light years from Earth, is the

closest Ultraluminous Infrared

Galaxy, emitting 100 times more energy than the Milky Way galaxy, primarily in the infrared spectrum,

even though it is faintly visible by telescope using visible light. Low

was named to serve as facility scientist for NASA's Space Infrared Telescope

Facility, later renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope.

The effort had been delayed by cost overruns, until Low had an inspiration at a

1993 retreat for the project's scientists; the passive cooling technique could

be used – rather than place the entire telescope in a bath of liquid helium to cool the unit to temperatures near absolute

zero, the unit could be exposed to the vacuum of space to radiate