Biography:Nelson James Terrell
James Terrell | |
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| Born | Nelson James Terrell Jr. August 15, 1923 Houston, Texas |
| Died | March 21, 2009 Los Alamos, New Mexico |
| Alma mater | Rice University |
| Known for | Terrell rotation |
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Nelson James Terrell (August 15, 1923–March 21, 2009)[1] was an American physicist who worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Terrell rotation, an image distortion of objects traveling near the speed of light, is named after him.[2]
Life
Nelson James Terrell Jr. was born in Houston, Texas in 1923.[1]
James Terrell did his undergraduate studies Rice University.[2]
In 1945, he married Anne Elizabeth Pearson.[1][3] Together, they had a daughter.[3]
From 1945 to 1947, the U.S. Army sent Terrell to Japan. When he came back, he finished his PhD at Rice University in 1950.[3] He worked on nuclear fission and the theory of relativity.[4]
He worked as assistant professor at Western Reserve University,[4] and later joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1951.[2][4]
Terrell was member of the International Astronomical Union.[5]
He died in Los Alamos, New Mexico in 2009.[1]
Research
In 1959, Terrell showed that according to special relativity, the appearance of objects looked rotated at high speed.[6] Roger Penrose independently reached the same conclusion.[7] This is now known as the Terrell rotation or Terrell effect.[2] This prediction was observed in the laboratory in 2025.[8][9]
In 1966, he studied quasars. He postulated that quasars were originally ejected from the center of galaxies.[2][10] This conjecture was the matter of international debate.[2]
In the 1970s he analyzed the X-ray data of Cygnus X-1, a black hole candidate,[4] and that collected by the Vela B satellite. He produced a movie of the sky depicting dying stars, quasars, and black holes.[2][11]
He also studied the diffraction problem of high intensity lasers.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Glenn, Justin (2014-09-05) (in en). The Washingtons. Volume 6, Part 2: Generation Ten of the Presidential Branch. Casemate Publishers. ISBN 978-1-940669-58-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=86RwEAAAQBAJ&dq=Nelson+James+Terrell&pg=RA1-PA32.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Lyons, Jean Terrell (2010-12-28). "Obituary of Nelson James Terrell" (in English). Physics Today (12). doi:10.1063/PT.4.1900. Bibcode: 2010PhT..2010l3466.. https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/3466/Obituary-of-Nelson-James-Terrell.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Michon, Gerard. "Biographies of Scientists - Numericana" (in en-US). https://www.numericana.com/fame/bio.htm#terrell.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 (in en) Los Alamos Science. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. 1982. https://books.google.com/books?id=9KStKJhlWlsC&dq=james+terrell+astrophysics&pg=PA23.
- ↑ "International Astronomical Union | IAU". https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/5671/.
- ↑ Terrell, James (November 1959). "Invisibility of the Lorentz Contraction". Physical Review 116 (4): 1041-45. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.116.1041. https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.116.1041.
- ↑ Penrose, Roger (January 1959). "The apparent shape of a relativistically moving sphere". Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 55 (1): 137-9. doi:10.1017/S0305004100033776. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mathematical-proceedings-of-the-cambridge-philosophical-society/article/abs/apparent-shape-of-a-relativistically-moving-sphere/DD30A7EBF858269BB2B258C29037AC67.
- ↑ Hornof, Dominik; Helm, Victoria; de Dios Rodriguez, Enar; Juffmann, Thomas; Haslinger, Philipp; Schattschneider, Peter (May 2025). "A snapshot of relativistic motion: visualizing the Terrell-Penrose effect". Communications Physics (Nature) 8 (161). doi:10.1038/s42005-025-02003-6. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-025-02003-6.
- ↑ Helm, Victoria; Juffmann, Thomas; Schattschneider, Peter (March 2026). Moskowitz, Clara. ed. "This mind-bending relativity illusion has never been seen—until now". Scientific American 334 (3): 54. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican032026-2CE1wygsA80bh4Z90OVFch. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-special-relativity-effect-observed-for-the-first-time/.
- ↑ "Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei". https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Kembhavi/Kem1_3_1.html.
- ↑ "MIT animation reveals the violent X-ray sky with unprecedented clarity". MIT News (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). January 13, 2000. https://news.mit.edu/2000/xraysky.
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