A. David Andrews facts for kids

A. David Andrews (born 1933) is an Irish astronomer. He is known for his important work studying stars that suddenly get much brighter, called flare stars. He also discovered an asteroid named 1727 Mette, after his wife.

Early Life and Discoveries

David Andrews studied at Oriel College Oxford and the University of Dublin. In the early 1960s, he worked in Denmark with another astrophysicist. In 1963, he moved to Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, where he worked for 35 years.

Discovering an Asteroid

While working at the Boyden Observatory in South Africa, David Andrews discovered the minor planet 1727 Mette. He named it after his Danish wife. It was also at Boyden Observatory that he began his long-term research on flare stars. He was one of the first astronomers to use computers for his work at Armagh Observatory in 1968.

Boyden Observatory's Journey

The Boyden Station was first set up by Harvard University in Peru in 1889. It used money given by Uriah A. Boyden. In 1927, the observatory, now called Boyden Observatory, moved all the way to its current spot in South Africa. This is where a large 36-inch Baker-Schmidt telescope was used by many astronomers, including those from Ireland. In 1976, the observatory was given to the University of the Orange Free State, and the famous telescope was taken apart. Some of its parts were moved to Dunsink Observatory in Dublin. After this, Andrews started looking at new international observatories in Chile and using satellite technology for his research.

Studying Flare Stars

David Andrews focused much of his career on flare stars. These are stars that show sudden, powerful bursts of energy, similar to flares on our Sun.

Andrews' Star and Stellar Flares

In the Irish Astronomical Journal, Andrews reported a strange star in the constellation Auriga. This star was so unique that Professor G. Haro called it "Andrews' Star." This was one of his first discoveries about flare stars. Andrews worked with many groups of scientists from different countries, including the UK, USA, Russia, and Mexico. He worked with G. Haro at the Tonantzintla Observatory in Mexico to study stellar flares in young star clusters.

Detecting Radio Flares

Working with other scientists, including Sir Bernard Lovell at the Jodrell Bank radio telescope, Andrews helped detect some of the earliest large radio flares from a type of flare star called UV Ceti-type stars. What Andrews observed in 1968 was later understood to be a "stellar megaflare," which is an extremely powerful flare from a star.

Mapping the Stars

In 1981, Andrews published a huge collection of measurements of over 16,000 stars in a region full of flare stars. This was called "A Photometric Atlas of the Orion Nebula." He used images from telescopes in Australia and Chile for this work.

Later Research and Retirement

In the 1990s, he also wrote a "Cyclopaedia of Telescope Makers" in seven parts for the Irish Astronomical Journal. From 1984, he actively searched for regular changes in the ultraviolet and infrared light from flare stars. These changes can show active areas on the stars and how fast they spin. He also worked with other astronomers to observe the rotation of certain types of stars using the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite.

David Andrews is now retired and lives with his wife, Mette, in a village near Sheffield, UK.