Erland Myles Standish Jr. (born March 5, 1939) is a mathematical astronomer largely working in the field of solar system dynamics and

celestial mechanics Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of objects in outer space. Historically, celestial mechanics applies principles of physics (classical mechanics) to astronomical objects, such as stars and planets, to ...

. He is a former professor at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

and had worked for the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

Work

Standish worked on the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Development Ephemeris Jet Propulsion Laboratory Development Ephemeris (abbreved JPL DE(number), or simply DE(number)) designates one of a series of mathematical models of the Solar System produced at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for use in space ...

. Early versions refined the accuracy of these fundamental astronomical data-sets by including many recent and accurate observational data, new types of data, using improved data processing methods, including refined equations of motion which more accurately described the actual physics of the solar system. With the inclusion of the lunar work of J. G. Williams and others, improved solar, planetary and lunar ephemerides were developed (in Dev. Eph. 102) far enough to have a significant historical as well as current coverage. Later versions of the Development Ephemerides include Development Ephemeris DE200, which was officially used in the

Astronomical Almanac ''The Astronomical Almanac''The ''Astronomical Almanac'' for the Year 2015, (United States Naval Observatory/Nautical Almanac Office, 2014) . is an almanac published by the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) and His Majesty's Nautical Almanac ...

(and in derived form, also in the Nautical Almanac) as the basis for the ephemerides of sun, moon and planets from 1984 through 2002; and DE405, which has been the basis of the corresponding ephemerides in the Astronomical Almanac and Nautical Almanac from and including 2003, to the present date. Later examples of the Development Ephemerides supported the navigation of specific

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

planetary space missions with precise results. Standish's work towards the development of the ephemerides took him also into the field of the history of astronomy, including study of the recently noted occurrence of Neptune in the notes of Galileo, identifying an additional manuscript observation of Neptune by Galileo (who had regarded it as a background star while studying the satellites of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

), and analyzing its significance for the modern-day ephemerides.Standish, E. M. & Nobili, A. M. (1997)
''Galileo's observations of Neptune''
''Baltic Astronomy'', vol. 6, pp. 97–104. Standish has collaborated with Dr. Elena V. Pitjeva and Dr. Agnes Fienga on the topic of a better determination of the

Astronomical Unit The astronomical unit (symbol: au, or or AU) is a unit of length, roughly the distance from Earth to the Sun and approximately equal to or 8.3 light-minutes. The actual distance from Earth to the Sun varies by about 3% as Earth orbits ...

and of the masses of the

asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

. Standish has also dealt with the

Pioneer Anomaly The Pioneer anomaly, or Pioneer effect, was the observed deviation from predicted accelerations of the ''Pioneer 10'' and ''Pioneer 11'' spacecraft after they passed about on their trajectories out of the Solar System. The apparent anomaly was ...

issue by modeling it in a modified version of the usual ephemerides and fitting such a new dynamical theory of planetary motions to the usual, well-established observational data set.

Awards

In 2008, Standish received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal; in 2015, he was given

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

's Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Bibliometric information

According to the

NASA ADS The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is an online database of over 16 million astronomy and physics papers from both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources. Abstracts are available free online for almost all articles, and full scanned a ...

database, Standish's

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as ...

is 21, with a total number of citations, self-citations being excluded, equal to 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Standish, E. Myles California Institute of Technology faculty Living people 1939 births American astronomers Yale University faculty Yale University alumni Recipients of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal