Bonnard J. Teegarden

{{Infobox person

| name = Bonnard J. Teegarden

| image = File:BONNARD J. TEEGARDEN.jpg

| caption = Bonnard J. Teegarden.

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|8|23|mf=yes}}

| nationality = American

| occupation = {{flatlist|

Physicist
Astrophysicist
Astronomer

}}

| known_for = discovery of Teegarden's Star

}}

Bonnard John Teegarden (born August 23, 1940){{cite web |last1=Jokipii |first1=J. R. |last2=Stone |first2=E. C. |last3=Vogt |first3=R. E. |last4=McDonald |first4=F. B. |last5=Teegarden |first5=B. J. |last6=Trainor |first6=J. H. |last7=Webber |first7=W. R. |url=https://voyager.gsfc.nasa.gov/Library/CR_Plan_Magnetosphere_Exp.pdf |title=Interstellar Cosmic Ray and Planetary Magnetospheres Experiment |page=43 (A19) |work=Goddard Space Flight Center |publisher=NASA |date=August 1972 |access-date=March 27, 2022}} is an American astrophysicist formerly with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, now retired. He spent most of his career studying cosmic gamma rays and is best known to the public for leading the team that discovered Teegarden's star in 2003.{{cite journal

| journal=The Astrophysical Journal Letters

| url=http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1538-4357/589/1/L51/17102.web.pdf?request-id=6072412e-d739-48e9-baca-4a9075b0adfd

| author=Teegarden, B. J.

| title=Discovery of a New Nearby Star

| date= May 20, 2003 | pages=L51–L53 | volume=589 | issue=1

| doi=10.1086/375803 | bibcode=2003ApJ...589L..51T|arxiv = astro-ph/0302206 | last2=Pravdo

| last3=Hicks

| last4=Lawrence

| last5=Shaklan

| last6=Covey

| last7=Fraser

| last8=Hawley

| last9=McGlynn

| last10=Reid

|s2cid = 119438487}}

Education

Teegarden grew up in Fair Haven, New Jersey and graduated from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School in Rumson in 1958.{{cite web| title=Bonnard Teegarden| publisher=Classmates.com| url=http://www.classmates.com/directory/public/memberprofile/list.htm?regId=8685516156| accessdate=2009-09-05}}[https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/496597153/ "Bausch & Lomb Award Goes To Regional High Student"], Long Branch Daily Record, January 23, 1958. Accessed January 11, 2022, via Newspapers.com. "Bonnard J. Teegarden, son of Dr. and Mrs. Robert W. Teegarden, 78 Princeton Rd., Fair Haven, will be awarded the Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award at the Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School." He earned a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/physics/alumniandfriends/physicsatmit_01_donors.pdf |title=Alumni Friends of the MIT Department of Physics, July 1, 2000 – May 31, 2001 |accessdate=2009-09-05 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061202052439/http://web.mit.edu/Physics/alumniandfriends/physicsatmit_01_donors.pdf |archivedate=December 2, 2006 }} and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Maryland in 1967. His thesis was "A Study of Low Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays"{{cite web| url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670014576_1967014576.pdf| title=Thesis: A Study of Low Energy Galactic Cosmic Rays From 1961 to 1965| date=1967-01-09| author=Bonnard John Teegarden| publisher=NASA}} and his advisor was Frank B. McDonald.

Career

=The discovery of Teegarden's star=

The discovery of Teegarden's star came as somewhat of a surprise as no close-by stars had been discovered for many decades. Teegarden's team found this star in data taken years earlier by an unrelated program searching for near-Earth asteroids.

The real excitement was from the initial measurements the team made for the parallax of this star. These initial measurements indicated that the star may be very close at a distance of about seven light-years. This would have made it the third-closest star system. This excitement resulted in numerous popular press articles and public interest.{{cite web| url=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/red_dwarf_030520.html| title=Star Search Finds Neighborly Red Dwarf| publisher=Space.com| date=2003-05-20| access-date=2009-09-05| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616041735/http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/red_dwarf_030520.html| archive-date=2009-06-16| url-status=dead}} In the years since the discovery was announced the measured distances gradually increased. The accepted distance is now more than twelve light-years and public interest has faded somewhat, but not before Teegarden was rewarded with the name of this newly discovered star, although other designations are sometimes used as well.{{cite journal| journal=The Astronomical Journal| title=Allegheny Observatory Parallaxes for Late M Dwarfs and White Dwarfs|date=January 2009| volume=137 | issue=1 | pages=402–405| doi=10.1088/0004-6256/137/1/402 | bibcode=2009AJ....137..402G| author1=George Gatewood| author2=Louis Coban| authorlink1=George Gatewood| doi-access=free}}

=Other work=

Teegarden was a cosmic ray researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for all of his professional life. He was co-investigator on the Pioneer Jupiter cosmic ray experiments{{cite web

| url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-349/app3.htm

| title=SP-349/396 - PIONEER ODYSSEY - Appendix 3 - The Pioneer Jupiter Team - Cosmic Ray Energy Spectra Experiment

| publisher=NASA

| date=1974-08-01

| accessdate=2009-09-05}} and later an investigator on the space based INTEGRAL{{cite journal

| journal=American Astronomical Society, HEAD Meeting #4, #17.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society

| title=INTEGRAL Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts

| volume=31 | pages=717 |date=April 1999

| bibcode=1999HEAD....4.1701T

| author=Teegarden, B. J.

| author2=Sturner, S. J.

}} and BATSE experiments.{{cite journal

| journal=The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

| title=BATSE spectroscopy catalog of bright gamma-ray bursts

| doi=10.1086/191969

| bibcode=1994ApJS...92..285S

|type = PDF| volume=92 | issue=1 | pages=285–310

| date=1994

| last2=Teegarden

| first2=Bonnard J.

| last3=Fantasia

| first3=Stephan F.

| last4=Palmer

| first4=David

| last5=Cline

| first5=Thomas L.

| last6=Matteson

| first6=James L.

| last7=Band

| first7=David L.

| last8=Ford

| first8=Lyle A.

| last9=Fishman

| first9=Gerald J. | last10=Meegan

| first10=Charles A.

| last11=Wilson

| first11=Robert B.

| last12=Paciesas

| first12=William S.

| last13=Pendleton

| first13=Geoffrey N.

| last14=Briggs

| first14=Michael S.

| last15=Lestrade

| first15=John P.

| display-authors=8

| last1=Schaefer

| first1=B.E.

}} He was also involved in studies of stellar nucleosynthesis.{{cite journal

|url = http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/-search=65644610.1/1538-4357/499/2/L169/985070.web.pdf

|title = Gamma-Ray Limits on Galactic ⁶⁰Fe Nucleosynthesis and Implications on the Origin of the ²⁶Al Emission

|last1 = Naya

|first1 = Juan E.

|journal = The Astrophysical Journal Letters

|volume = 499

|issue = 2

|date = 1 June 1998

|pages = L169–L173

|doi = 10.1086/311373

|last2 = Barthelmy

|first2 = Scott D.

|last3 = Bartlett

|first3 = Lyle M.

|last4 = Gehrels

|first4 = Neil

|last5 = Parsons

|first5 = Ann

|last6 = Teegarden

|first6 = Bonnard J.

|last7 = Tueller

|first7 = Jack

|last8 = Leventhal

|first8 = Marvin

|bibcode = 1998ApJ...499L.169N

|arxiv = astro-ph/9804074

|s2cid = 661364

}}{{Dead link|date=February 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} He is a prolific researcher with 200 articles listed in SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System.{{Cite web|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-basic_connect?qsearch=teegarden%2C+b&version=1|title=Nasa/Ads}}

Personal life

After retiring from NASA Teegarden and his wife moved to Annapolis, Maryland. He now works wood, and sails. He has developed special software for making decorative wooden bowls.{{cite web|url=http://astroturnings.com/ |title=Teegarden Turnings |accessdate=2009-09-05 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128124208/http://astroturnings.com/ |archivedate=2011-01-28 }}