Robert Quimby

<p><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Stumbled across this thing from the band’s twitter:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Robert Quimby</span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span">is an American astronomer who received his Ph.D. in</span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy&quot; title="Astronomy">Astronomy</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span">from the</span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_at_Austin&quot; title="University of Texas at Austin">University of Texas at Austin</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">. As a lead member of the</span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Supernova_Survey&quot; title="Texas Supernova Survey" class="mw-redirect">Texas Supernova Survey</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">, Quimby and his team used the relatively small 18-inch ROTSE-IIIb robotic telescope on McDonald Observatory’s Mount Fowlkes, along with a program he designed to track supernovae. In 2005, Quimby discovered</span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN2005ap&quot; title="SN2005ap" class="mw-redirect">SN2005ap</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">, at this writing the brightest explosion ever recorded. Quimby measured the burst at 100 billion times the luminosity of our sun, at a distance of 4.7 billion light years. As a comparison, this supernova occurred 160 million years before the formation of the</span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth&quot; title="Earth">Earth</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">. Quimby continues his research at the</span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Institute_of_Technology&quot; title="California Institute of Technology">California Institute of Technology</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span">in</span><span class="Apple-style-span">&nbsp;</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasadena,_California&quot; title="Pasadena, California">Pasadena, California</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span">.</span><br /></div><div></div><div>(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Quimby">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Quimby</a&gt;)</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div>… whoa. The guy quit the band for a reason.</div>
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