astronomy

Martha P. Haynes

Martha P. Haynes 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 Martha P. Haynes rather than just read about it. In short: Martha Patricia Haynes (born 24 April 1951) is an American astronomer who specializes in radio astronomy and extragalactic astronomy. She is the distinguished professor of arts and sciences in astronomy at Cornell University.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Martha Patricia Haynes (born 24 April 1951) is an American astronomer who specializes in radio astronomy and extragalactic astronomy. She is the distinguished professor of arts and sciences in astronomy at Cornell University. She has been on a number of high-level committees within the US and International Astronomical Community, including advisory committee for the Division of Engineering and Physical Sciences of the National Academies (2003–2008) and Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Review (in 2010). She was a vice-president of the executive committee of the International Astronomical Union from 2006–2012, and was on the board of trustees of Associated Universities Inc from 1994 until 2016, serving two terms as board chair and one year as interim president. In 2026, she was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Academic career Haynes graduated from Wellesley College in 1973 with a B.A. in physics and astronomy. She went to Indiana University Bloomington for graduate school. There she received her M.A. in 1975 and her Ph.D. in 1978. From 1978 until 1981 she worked at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center when she left to become the assistant director for the Green Bank Telescope. She joined the faculty at Cornell in 1983. There she worked with collaborator Riccardo Giovanelli, using radio telescopes to map the distribution of galaxies in the Universe. She was co-lead of the ALFALFA survey, having worked with the project (and its predecessor project, the ALFA survey) since the early 2000s. Together with Riccardo Giovanelli, she worked on the development of the Cerro Chajnantor Atacama Telescope (CCAT) in the mid-1990s, which has led to the construction of the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) on Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile. She is (as of 2020) the chairman of the board of directors for the CCAT-project.

Honors and awards In 1989, Haynes received together with her collaborator Riccardo Giovanelli the Henry Draper Medal "for the first three-dimensional view of some of the remarkable large-scale filamentary structures of our visible universe". In 1999 she was elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2000 was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She was awarded the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2019 "in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding achievement and contributions to astrophysics research". Asteroid 26744 Marthahaynes, discovered by astronomers of LONEOS program at Anderson Mesa Station in 2001, was named in her honor. The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on November 8, 2019 (M.P.C. 118219). She was awarded the 2020 Karl G. Jansky Lectureship. She was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.

Personal life Haynes is married to longtime collaborator Riccardo Giovanelli. They live in Ithaca, New York.

Selected publications Haynes, M. P., and R. Giovanelli. "Large-Scale Structure in the Local Universe: The Pisces-Perseus Supercluster." In Large-Scale Motions in the Universe, V. C. Rubin and G. F. Coyne, eds. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 45. Haynes, M. P. "Evidence for Gas Deficiency in Cluster Galaxies." In Clusters of Galaxies, W. R. Oegerle, M. J. Fitchett, and L. Danly, eds. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 177. Vogt, N. P., T. Herter, M. P. Haynes, and S. Courteau. "The Rotation Curves of Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift." Astrophys. J. Lett. 415 (1993). Roberts, M. S., and M. P. Haynes. "Variation of Physical Properties along the Hubble Sequence." Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 32, 115 (1994). Haynes, M. P., and A. H. Broeils. "Cool HI Disks in Galaxies." In Gas Disks in Galaxies, J. M. van der Hulst, ed. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1995), to appear.

See also ALFALFA, an astronomical survey at the Arecibo Observatory

References

External links Martha P. Haynes Personal Page Cornell University: Department of Astronomy National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center: Arecibo Observatory

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Martha P. Haynes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Martha P. Haynes 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 Martha P. Haynes 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 Martha P. Haynes 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 Martha P. Haynes

In research: Martha P. Haynes 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 Martha P. Haynes 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: Martha P. Haynes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1951 births, 20th-century American astronomers, 20th-century American women scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Martha P. Haynes 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.

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How to study Martha P. Haynes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Martha P. Haynes 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 Martha P. Haynes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Martha P. Haynes in simple terms?

Why does Martha P. Haynes 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 Martha P. Haynes?

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 Martha P. Haynes.