astronomy

Peter Smith (physicist)

Peter Smith (physicist) 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 Peter Smith (physicist) rather than just read about it. In short: Peter H. Smith is a professor emeritus (he retired in 2013) at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, where he holds the inaugural Thomas R.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Peter H. Smith is a professor emeritus (he retired in 2013) at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, where he holds the inaugural Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Integrative Science. He is also the principal investigator for the $420 million robotic explorer Phoenix which landed at the north pole of the planet Mars on May 25, 2008. Peter H. Smith's papers are held at the University of Arizona Special Collections Library.

Early life and education Peter H. Smith was born December 2, 1947, in New York and was raised in Tucson, Arizona. Smith's father was Hugh H. Smith, a virologist who was part of the team at the Rockefeller Foundation who developed a vaccine for yellow fever in 1930's. After his retirement from the Rockefeller Foundation, Hugh H. Smith worked at the University of Arizona and founded the Tucson Society of Tropical Medicine. Smith's mother was an opera singer. Smith went to Tucson High School and received his bachelor's degree in physics in 1969 from the University of California, Berkeley and his master's degree from the University of Arizona Optical Sciences Center in 1977. In 2009 he received a PhD in Optical Science from the University of Arizona. Since 1978, he has worked at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, initially as a Research Assistant up the ladder to full professor with tenure.

Space exploration missions Smith worked on the Pioneer Venus mission of 1978 and the Pioneer Saturn mission of 1979, mapped the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan using the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994, and became Project Manager for a descent camera on the Huygens probe that landed on Titan in 2005. Smith designed the cameras for Sojourner Rover of the Mars Pathfinder mission, the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, and the subsequently cancelled Mars Surveyor Lander. He helped to build the microscope for the ill-fated Beagle 2, and managed the building of the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera. He serves on the science team for the Mars Exploration Rovers which landed in January 2004. Smith's proposal for the Phoenix Mars Lander project was selected in 2003 as the first Scout mission to Mars. He was responsible for all aspects of the $420 million mission. At present, Smith is a co-investigator for the NASA New Frontiers OSIRIS-REx Mission.

Awards Smith has received many awards in his career including the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 2010.

References

External links Lunar and Planetary Laboratory Phoenix Mars Mission Appearances on C-SPAN This article was originally based on material from the Phoenix project page Archived 2018-09-05 at the Wayback Machine, which is licensed under the GFDL.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Smith (physicist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Smith (physicist) 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 Peter Smith (physicist) 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 Peter Smith (physicist) 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 Peter Smith (physicist)

In research: Peter Smith (physicist) 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 Peter Smith (physicist) 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: Peter Smith (physicist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American physicists, Living people, Planetary scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Smith (physicist) 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 Peter Smith (physicist) in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Smith (physicist) in simple terms?

Peter H. Smith is a professor emeritus (he retired in 2013) at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, where he holds the inaugural Thomas R.

Why does Peter Smith (physicist) 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 Peter Smith (physicist)?

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 Peter Smith (physicist).