Damon Simonelli

Damon Paul Simonelli (15 August 1959 – 1 December 2004) was a planetary scientist who worked for Cornell University and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the U.S.^[1] He was a pioneer in the development of radiative transfer models to analyze astronomical objects.

Simonelli was born in the Bronx, New York, to Alice Kennard, a secretary at Montefiore Medical Center, and Aldo Simonelli, a clarinetist for the New York City Opera Company and lead negotiator for the local musician's union to the City Opera. As a child, Damon showed a keen interest in space exploration, astronomy and science fiction. He attended the Bronx High School of Science. .^[2]

Simonelli graduated from Cornell University with a BA summa cum laude in physics in 1980. He continued at Cornell in a research role, developing the area of quantitative radiative transfer with Joe Veverka to characterise the surface of planets, and he also studied the post-eclipse brightening of Jupiter's moon, Io. His PhD in Astronomy and Space Sciences was gained with a thesis on the properties of Io's surface.^[2][3]

At the NASA Ames Research Center, Simonelli was a National Research Council (NRC) Fellowship, working on the structure of Pluto and its moons with Jim Pollack, Ray Reynolds and Chris McKay. He maintained that, because of its rockier composition, Pluto formed in a carbon monoxide-rich outer solar nebula rather than a planetary nebula surrounding the dwarf planet. Simonelli and Ray Reynolds suggested that Pluto's density is a result of a collision which also created its largest moon, Charon.^[2][3]

Desde 1991, tras regresar a Cornell, Simonelli dirigió un equipo que estudiaba cuerpos menores del Sistema Solar, como los satélites Io , Febe , Tebe , Amaltea , Metis y Fobos , y los asteroides 243 Ida , 951 Gaspra y 52 Europa . Su experiencia en la planificación de observaciones y secuencias de comandos para la sonda Galileo le valió el Premio al Desempeño Superior de la NASA. ^{[ 2 ] [ 4 ]}

En 2002, aceptó otra beca del NRC, esta vez en el Laboratorio de Propulsión a Chorro de la NASA . Allí planificó observaciones utilizando el espectrómetro de mapeo visible e infrarrojo , como parte de las observaciones de Titán, el satélite de Saturno, realizadas por la nave espacial Cassini . ^{[ 2 ]} Simonelli colaboró ​​en la misión New Horizons de la NASA a Plutón y más allá, que se lanzó en 2006.

Murió de insuficiencia cardíaca en su casa cerca de Pasadena . El asteroide 8071 Simonelli fue nombrado en su honor. ^{[ 5 ]} La Unión Astronómica Internacional también nombró informalmente un cráter plutoniano Simonelli en su honor. ^{[ 6 ]}

• Lista de accidentes geográficos en Plutón