astronomy

John Huchra

John Huchra is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand John Huchra rather than just read about it. In short: John Peter Huchra ( HUK-rə; December 23, 1948 – October 8, 2010) was an American astronomer and professor. He was the Vice Provost for Research Policy at Harvard University and a professor of Astronomy at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

Key takeaways

John Huchra belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect John Huchra to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of John Huchra from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

John Peter Huchra ( HUK-rə; December 23, 1948 – October 8, 2010) was an American astronomer and professor. He was the Vice Provost for Research Policy at Harvard University and a professor of Astronomy at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. He was also a former chair of the United States National Committee for the International Astronomical Union. and past president of the American Astronomical Society. Huchra was born on December 23, 1948, in Jersey City, New Jersey, to a father who was a train conductor and a mother who was a housewife. He was raised in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey and graduated from Ridgefield Park High School as part of the class of 1966. He developed an interest in reading books about cosmology and science fiction. He was a member of the wrestling team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1970 with a major in physics. He went on to the California Institute of Technology, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in astronomy. He took on a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in 1976 and remained there for the rest of his career. Together with fellow astronomers Marc Aaronson and Jeremy Mould, Huchra announced that based on their analysis of the brightness and rotational speed of certain spiral galaxies that the universe was nine billion years old, half the age that most astronomers had previously thought. In 1986, Valérie de Lapparent, Margaret Geller and Huchra published the surprisingly non-uniform distribution of galaxies at scales of several tens of megaparsecs from early results of the CfA Redshift Survey. De Lapparent, Geller and Huchra described the galaxy distribution as apparently lying on the "surfaces of bubble-like structures". In 1989, using later results from their redshift survey, Geller and Huchra discovered the Great Wall, a structure measuring 600 million light years in length and 250 million light years in width. This is the second largest known super-structure in the universe. The gravitational lensing galaxy in front of the so-called Einstein Cross quasar was discovered by Huchra and coworkers and has been called Huchra's Lens.

References

External links John Huchra on INSPIRE-HEP Huchra's page at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian site AAS Officers Obituary in the Boston Globe Obituary in the New York Times Huchra's papers, from ADS, sorted by citations Last Word, 05/11/2010. BBC Radio 4. Matthew Bannister on Ted Sorensen, Maurice Murphy, John Huchra and Ronnie Clayton.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with John Huchra

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what John Huchra claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to John Huchra before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about John Huchra ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of John Huchra

In research: John Huchra appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses John Huchra in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: John Huchra is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 2010 deaths, American astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for John Huchra outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “John Huchra” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study John Huchra in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what John Huchra means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain John Huchra out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is John Huchra in simple terms?

Why does John Huchra matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study John Huchra?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on John Huchra.