Peter Jalowiczor (born 1965) is an amateur astronomer living in South Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom. Jalowiczor is primarily known for co-discovering four exoplanets at home using data released to the public by the University of California's Lick-Carnegie Planet Search Team and done research confirming that for the delta effect for comets. He has written four books – two about football and two about Polish servicemen from World War II. He is also the founder of a football club, the Polish Millers.
Education and career
Jalowiczor is employed in Post-16 education. He has three academic degrees, two of which are from the University of Sheffield. These are a BSc (Hons) in physics from 1988, and a PgDip in astrophysical sciences from 1989. At the University of Sheffield, he did his postgraduate research under Professor David Hughes studying Halley's Comet, which was his work on the delta effect. He also has a PGCE from the University of Huddersfield.
Research
Jalowiczor has taken part in several research projects as an amateur, including work with exoplanets, brown dwarfs, comets and Mars. He was a member of South Yorkshire's Mexborough and Swinton Astronomical Society, where he gave several talks on the various research projects volunteered for example on his work with Planet Four, a citizen science project.
Finding brown dwarfs, white dwarfs
NASA launched their Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 Citizen Science Project in early 2017, under Dr Marc Kuchner. Jalowiczor has been active in this area discovering 25 brown dwarfs. These are also generally mentioned in Marc's Blog post and are expected to be published in a future science journal. Other publications resulting include the identification of WD (White Dwarf) companions to known eclipsing binary systems such as the HP Dra system. This project also resulted in a teleconference team-teach at his old school in 2020 in a NASA-link up. Peter has presented at conferences of the AAS (American Astronomical Society) in 2021 and 2023. From 2021 his research has been displayed at the Clifton Park Museum in Rotherham.
Finding exoplanets
The University of California launched the Lick–Carnegie Exoplanet Survey, a search for exo-planets with the method of Doppler spectroscopy, using the ten-meter Keck telescope located in Hawaii. Jalowiczor began his research in 2007, using data on a public server from the survey team, which began uploading its measurements on a public server starting in 2005. Jalowiczor looked for oscillations of stars that could be caused by a nearby planet, alerting the University of California to possible exoplanets. His work did not require a telescope (multiple sources agree that he does not own one), but used only two home computers. He sent around 40 suggestions before the survey team contacted Jalowiczor indicating that they believed he found a potential exoplanet. The University of California confirmed the first discovery, HD177830c, in December 2009, with the next three confirmed later in September 2010. In 2010 the survey published a paper with Jalowiczor which presented the data on the four exoplanets and showed the light graphs used to discover the exoplanets (for an explanation, see figure at right). The four planets discovered from his work are HD 31253b, HD 218566b, HD 177830c and HD 99492c. HD 218566b is within the habitable zone of its solar system. While it is unlikely that it holds extraterrestrial life because it is a gas giant with no solid surface, it is possible that there could be a moon circling it which could sustain life. HD 218566b has been named Ugarit. The name was selected in the NameExoWorlds campaign by Syria, during the 100th anniversary of the IAU. Ugarit was a city where its scribes devised the Ugaritic alphabet around 1400 B.C.
Analysis of the delta effect
Jalowiczor has also done research relating to comets. The work confirmed the delta effect (the variation in the distance between a comet and its observer affecting the perceived cometary coma magnitude). The formula for this effect was known to be . Most astronomers believed but Ernst Öpik questioned this and claimed . Jalowiczor's paper confirmed that , though it can vary. His analysis used a photograph of Comet Halley taken by an Anglo-Australian 3.9-meter reflector.