Peter Jalowiczor

Peter Jalowiczor in his study (taken 2010) showing PCs set-up for the analysis of extrasolar planetary data.

Jalowiczor is employed in education in Rotherham, is a member of South Yorkshire's Mexborough and Swinton Astronomical Society, and has two academic degrees from the University of Sheffield - a BSc(Hons) in physics from 1988 and a PgDip in astrophysical sciences from 1989. In 2013, he was awarded a PGCE from the University of Huddersfield. Of his more recent books was one about Millmoor football called Postcards from Millmoor. Rotherham United manager Steve Evans was a guest at the book's launch.

Two stars of different size orbiting the center of mass. The spectrum can be seen to split depending on the position and velocity of the stars. Using this same principle, Jalowiczor searched for planets orbiting a star, instead of binary star systems.

Finding exoplanets

The University of California began uploading its measurements starting in 2005, using the ten meter Keck telescope located in Hawaii. Jalowiczor started his research in 2007, using Doppler spectroscopy. Jalowiczor looked for oscillations of stars in the extensive data released by the University of California that could be caused by a nearby planet, alerting the University of California to possible exoplanets. His work used only two home computers; he has been cited in multiple sources as not owning a telescope.

I sent about 40 suggestions before they got back to me saying 'This one is interesting, we think this is a [candidate] planet'.

— Peter Jalowiczor

The University of California confirmed the first discovery: HD177830c on Christmas Eve, 2009 with the next three confirmed later in September, 2010 in the collaborative academic paper published The four planets discovered from his work are HD 31253b, HD 218566b, HD 177830c and HD 99492c. HD 218566b is within the habitable zone of its solar system. While it is unlikely that it holds extraterrestrial life because it is a gas planet, it is possible that there could be a moon circling it which could sustain life.

Analysis of the delta effect

Comet Encke is shown here. Comet Halley is the periodic comet whose data was analyzed by Jalowiczor to determine whether or not the law ${\displaystyle \Delta ^{-2}}$ held for the delta effect.

Jalowiczor has also done research relating to comets. The work confirmed the delta effect (the variation in the distance ${\displaystyle \Delta }$ between a comet and its observer affecting the perceived cometary coma magnitude) and showed that the ${\displaystyle \Delta ^{-2}}$ formula questioned by Ernst Öpik did in fact hold. His analysis used Comet Halley among others.

Published work

Jalowiczor's discovery of exoplanets has been published in the Astrophysical Journal in a paper titled The Lick-Carnegie Survey: Four New Exoplanet Candidates written with Stefano Meschiari, Gregory P. Laughlin, Steven S. Vogt, R. Paul Butler, Eugenio J. Rivera, and Nader Haghighipour. The paper has been cited 36 times. Jalowiczor has also published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1993, in a paper titled On the variation of cometary coma brightness with comet-Earth distance (the Delta Effect), authored with David Hughes, Neil McBride, and James Boswell, a research team led by David Hughes at the University of Sheffield. This paper has been cited twice. Using the citation counts for the two papers he has authored, Jalowiczor has an h-index of two.

Jalowiczor was the main founder of the Polish Millers otherwise known as KP Millers Trojwies. This was a non-league football club in Poland set up in 1996 and registered in the Polish league in 1997. The club drew the name both from English club Rotherham United FC and the area where it was based, Trojwies, centered on the village of Istebna.

Photo from the Polish Millers - Ruch Chorzow match, July 2006,

International visits

2006 saw the visit of an international delegation from Rotherham including the Leader of the Council, Roger Stone, the Vice-Chairman of Rotherham United FC Dinno Maccio and Millers' Trust (a supporters' club) representatives: Chris Saxon and Peter Jalowiczor. The visit was over two days in July. The highlight was a special football friendly against 14 times Polish Champions KS Ruch Chorzow. The match finished 3:3. In 2013, there was a second, more low-key visit to the club by Roger Stone and Rotherham United Chief Operating Officer, Paul Douglas.

Heritage project

Jalowiczor published his third book, Forgotten Heroes, in 2014. This is a collection of WWII accounts from Polish ex-servicemen who settled in Rotherham after the war and charts the development of their community in the following decades.

All proceeds were donated to Cancer Research via the Inspiration For Life Trust Fund, Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield. Some funds were targeted for a memorial for a Rotherham, Polish ex-serviceman who died in 1991. In September 2015, meetings from families and friends connected to the Poles who settled in the town started meeting at the Mowbray Gardens library, Rotherham. From January 2017, the meetings became monthly and in April 2017, an Anglo-Polish Society has been registered.