Roger Angel facts for kids

James Roger Prior Angel, born on February 7, 1941, is a brilliant British-American astrophysicist. He is famous for his amazing work in astronomy and for designing huge optics (like special lenses and mirrors) for telescopes. These optics are also used for solar power and other cool inventions.

Dr. Angel created special ways to make giant mirrors for telescopes. These methods, called spin casting and stressed lap polishing, are used at the University of Arizona. They help create some of the biggest telescope mirrors in the world. He is a top professor of Astronomy and Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.

Learning and Degrees

Early Studies

James Angel finished his first degree (a Bachelor of Arts) from St Peter's College, Oxford, in 1963. He then earned a Master of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1966. In 1967, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford.

Building a Computer

While studying at Oxford's Clarendon Laboratory, he built an early computer. This computer helped him make the first direct measurement of an atom's electric quadrupole moment. This is a tiny property of an atom's electrical charge.

Career and Discoveries

Teaching and Recognition

Dr. Angel has taught at Columbia University. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very old and respected group of scientists in the UK. In 1990, he was also chosen as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This shows how much his work is valued by other scientists.

Lobster-Eye Optics

In 1979, Dr. Angel came up with an idea called lobster-eye optics for X-rays. This idea is based on how a lobster's eye works. It helps scientists focus X-rays, which are a type of light we can't see. This is useful for studying things in space that give off X-rays.

The Space Sunshade Idea

In 2006, Dr. Angel suggested a big idea to help with global warming. He proposed building a "space sunshade" in space. This sunshade would be made of trillions of tiny, lightweight disks. Each disk would be about 0.6 meters (about 2 feet) wide and weigh only 1 gram.

How the Sunshade Would Work

These disks would be made of a special material that bends light. They would be placed in a stable spot between Earth and the Sun. This spot is called Lagrange point 1 (or L1), which is about 1.5 billion kilometers (930 million miles) from Earth.

The disks would be launched into space in stacks of 800,000 at a time. They would use a method called electromagnetic acceleration to get off Earth. Then, they would travel to L1 using ion propulsion, which is a very efficient way to move in space.

Once at L1, the individual disks would separate. They would stay in place by using the gentle push of solar radiation pressure (the force of sunlight). Together, this huge cloud of disks would block about 2% of the Sun's light from reaching Earth. This amount would be enough to balance out the warming effect from a big increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Cost and Timeframe

Dr. Angel believed that such a sunshield could be built and put into space in about 25 years. He estimated the cost would be a few trillion dollars. This might sound like a lot, but it would be less than 0.5% of the world's total economic output over that time.

Featured on NPR

On August 23, 2012, Dr. Angel and his amazing inventions were featured on a story for NPR's Morning Edition show.

Awards and Honors

Dr. James Roger Prior Angel has received many important awards for his scientific work:

• 1976 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy
• 1996 MacArthur Fellows Program
• 2007 Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize
• 2010 Kavli Prize for Astrophysics
• 2016 National Inventors Hall of Fame