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Johannes Geiss’ Investigations of Solar, Heliospheric and Interstellar Matter

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Abstract

Johannes Geiss is a world leader and foremost expert on measurements and interpretation of the composition of matter that reveals the history, present state, and future of astronomical objects. With his Swiss team he was first to measure the composition of the noble gases in the solar wind when in the late 1960s he flew the brilliant solar wind collecting foil experiments on the five Apollo missions to the moon. Always at the forefront of the art of composition measurements, he with his colleagues determined the isotopic and elemental composition of the solar wind using instruments characterized by innovative design that have provided the most comprehensive record of the solar wind composition under all solar wind conditions at all helio-latitudes. He discovered heavy interstellar pickup ions, from which the composition of the neutral gas of the Local Interstellar Cloud is determined, and the “Inner Source” of pickup ions. Johannes Geiss played a key role both in the in-situ measurements and modeling of molecular ions in comets, and the interpretation of these data. He and co-workers measured the composition of plasmas in the magnetospheres of Earth and Jupiter. Here we highlight Johannes Geiss’ many discoveries and seminal contributions to our knowledge of the composition of matter of the Sun, solar wind, interstellar gas, early universe, comets and magnetospheres.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oceanic, Atmospheric and Space Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2143, USA

    George Gloeckler & Lennard A. Fisk

  2. Department of Physics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MI, 20742-0001, USA

    George Gloeckler

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  1. George Gloeckler
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  2. Lennard A. Fisk
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Correspondence to George Gloeckler.

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Gloeckler, G., Fisk, L.A. Johannes Geiss’ Investigations of Solar, Heliospheric and Interstellar Matter. Space Sci Rev 130, 489–513 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-007-9226-y

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