From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meteor astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens (b. 1962) is a senior research scientist at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and at NASA Ames Research Center. His full name is Petrus Matheus Marie Jenniskens.

Jenniskens is the author of "Meteor Showers and their Parent Comets" published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. From the summary: "This is a unique handbook for astronomers interested in observing meteor storms and outbursts. Astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens, an active meteor storm chaser, explains how meteoroid streams originate from the decay of comets (and asteroids), and how they evolve by gravitational pull of planets to cause meteor showers on Earth. All known meteor showers are identified, accompanied by fascinating details on the most important showers and their parent comets. The book predicts when exceptional meteor showers will occur over the next 50 years, making it a valuable resource both for amateur and professional astronomers."

Jenniskens has been the principal investigator of NASA's Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign (Leonid MAC), a series of four airborne missions that fielded modern instrumental techniques to study the 1998 - 2002 Leonid meteor storms. These missions helped develop meteor storm prediction models, detected the signature of organic matter in the wake of meteors as a potential precursor to origin-of-life chemistry, and discovered many new aspects of meteor radiation. Results are given at: [1]

More recently, he has been the principal investigator of the Hyperseed MAC missions to study the fiery return from interplanetary space of the Genesis (Sep. 2004) and Stardust (Jan. 2006) Sample Return Capsules. These missions studied what are artificial meteors to understand what physical conditions the protective heat shield endured during the reentry before being recovered. Results are given at: [2]

Jenniskens identified the Quadrantids parent body 2003 EH1, and several others, as new examples of how fragmenting comets are the dominant source of meteor showers. Before that, he predicted and observed the 1995 alpha-Monocerotid meteor outburst (with members of the Dutch Meteor Society), proving that "stars fell like rain at midnight" because the dust trails of long-period comets wander on occasion in Earth's path. In earlier collaborations, he discovered that an unusual viscous form of liguid water can be a common form of water in comets and icy satellites (with David F. Blake) and he created the first broad detection-limited survey of Diffuse Interstellar Bands (with Xavier Désert).

Jenniskens is chair of the Task Group on Meteor Shower Nomenclature of Commission 22 of the International Astronomical Union (2006-2009).

Discovered at Ondrejov Observatory by Peter Plavec, asteroid 42981 Jenniskens is named in his honor.