astronomy

Sean Solomon

Sean Solomon 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 Sean Solomon rather than just read about it. In short: Sean Carl Solomon (born October 24, 1945) is an American geophysicist and planetary scientist who is currently a Doherty Senior Scholar at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, where he was also director and the William B. Ransford Professor of Earth and Planetary Science from 2012 to 2020.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Sean Carl Solomon (born October 24, 1945) is an American geophysicist and planetary scientist who is currently a Doherty Senior Scholar at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, where he was also director and the William B. Ransford Professor of Earth and Planetary Science from 2012 to 2020. Before moving to Columbia in 2012, he was the director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. His research area is in the fields of planetary geology, seismology, marine geophysics, and geodynamics. Solomon is the principal investigator on the NASA MESSENGER mission to Mercury. He is also a team member on the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission and the Plume-Lithosphere Undersea Melt Experiment (PLUME).

Education Solomon was born in Los Angeles, California on October 24, 1945. Solomon received his B.S. from the California Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1971.

Career From 1972 through 1992 he was an assistant, associate, and full professor at MIT. For the next 20 years he was Director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He assumed his positions at Columbia in 2012. Solomon has served as Principal Investigator for the Carnegie Institution's part of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) and member of the Earth Institute External Advisory Board at Columbia University. He has been a member of the Magellan Project Science Team, Radar Investigation Group and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter Team. He has been on numerous oceanographic expeditions. Solomon continues to serve on committees.

Awards and honors Solomon is the recipient of the 1999 G. K. Gilbert Award from the Geological Society of America and the Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship from the National Academy of Sciences also in 1999. He was president of the American Geophysical Union from 1996 to 1998. In 2005, Solomon was awarded the Harry H. Hess Medal by the American Geophysical Union. The medal is given for outstanding achievements on research on the evolution of Earth and other planets. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the California Institute of Technology in 2006. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995. In 2012, he was named a National Medal of Science laureate. In 2014, President Barack Obama presented Solomon with the National Medal of Science.

References

External links Biography - Carnegie Institution, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Resume - Carnegie Institution, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism MESSENGER Science Team Homepage at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sean Solomon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sean Solomon 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 Sean Solomon 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 Sean Solomon 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 Sean Solomon

In research: Sean Solomon 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 Sean Solomon 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: Sean Solomon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, American planetary scientists, Columbia University faculty, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sean Solomon 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 Sean Solomon in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Sean Solomon in simple terms?

Why does Sean Solomon 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 Sean Solomon?

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 Sean Solomon.