Jane Luu

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Vietnamese American astronomer

title: "Jane Luu" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1963-births", "living-people", "20th-century-american-astronomers", "20th-century-american-women", "21st-century-american-women-scientists", "21st-century-american-astronomers", "discoverers-of-asteroids", "discoverers-of-trans-neptunian-objects", "discoveries-by-jane-luu", "recipients-of-the-annie-j.-cannon-award-in-astronomy", "academics-of-vietnamese-descent", "harvard-university-faculty", "hubble-fellows", "academic-staff-of-leiden-university", "members-of-the-norwegian-academy-of-science-and-letters", "people-from-ho-chi-minh-city", "planetary-scientists", "women-astronomers", "astronomers", "vietnamese-scientists", "vietnamese-emigrants-to-the-united-states", "mit-lincoln-laboratory-people", "kavli-prize-laureates-in-astrophysics", "women-planetary-scientists", "american-women-academics", "american-scientists-of-asian-descent", "massachusetts-institute-of-technology-alumni"] description: "Vietnamese American astronomer" topic_path: "science/astronomy" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Luu" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Vietnamese American astronomer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

FieldValue
nameJane Lưu
imageJane Luu.jpg
birth_date
birth_placeSaigon, Vietnam
fieldsAstronomy, Astrophysics, Engineering
workplacesHarvard University, Lincoln Laboratory at MIT, Tufts University, University of Oslo
alma_materStanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
thesis_titlePhysical Studies of Primitive Solar System Bodies
thesis_year1992
doctoral_advisorDavid C. Jewitt
known_forDiscovery of the Kuiper belt
awardsAnnie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy (1991)
Shaw Prize (2012)
Kavli Prize (2012)
signature
website
spouseRonnie Hoogerwerf
::

| name = Jane Lưu | image = Jane Luu.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = Saigon, Vietnam | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = Astronomy, Astrophysics, Engineering | workplaces = Harvard University, Lincoln Laboratory at MIT, Tufts University, University of Oslo | alma_mater = Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | thesis_title = Physical Studies of Primitive Solar System Bodies | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1992 | doctoral_advisor = David C. Jewitt | known_for = Discovery of the Kuiper belt | awards = Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy (1991) Shaw Prize (2012) Kavli Prize (2012) | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = | spouse = Ronnie Hoogerwerf ::data[format=table title="[[Minor planet]]s discovered: 37"] | Legend to co-discoverers: | |---| | David C. Jewitt | ::

Jane X. Luu (; born July 1963) is a Vietnamese-American astronomer and defense systems engineer. She was awarded the Kavli Prize (shared with David C. Jewitt and Michael Brown) for 2012 "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt and its largest members, work that led to a major advance in the understanding of the history of our planetary system".

Luu immigrated to the United States as a refugee in 1975, when the South Vietnamese government during the fall of Saigone. She and her family lived in refugee camps and motels before they settled in Kentucky, where she had relatives. She graduated from high school as valedictorian and then earned a scholarship to Stanford University, receiving her bachelor's degree in physics in 1984. Working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA after college inspired her to study astronomy.

Work as a graduate student and co-discovery of the Kuiper Belt

As a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she looked at links between asteroids and comets for her main PhD project. She also worked with David C. Jewitt to discover the Kuiper Belt, an area previously believed to contain no objects. In 1992, after five years of observation, they found the first known Kuiper Belt object other than Pluto and its largest moon Charon, using the University of Hawaiʻi's 2.2 meter telescope on Mauna Kea. This object is 15760 Albion, which she and Jewitt nicknamed "Smiley". She received her PhD in 1992 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Professional life

After receiving her doctorate, Luu worked as an assistant professor at Harvard University, since 1994. Luu also served as a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Following her time in Europe, Luu returned to the United States and worked on instrumentation as a Senior Scientist at Lincoln Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focusing on defense-industry projects, specifically lidar systems.

In December 2004, Luu and Jewitt reported the discovery of crystalline water ice on Quaoar, which was at the time the largest known Kuiper Belt object. They also found indications of ammonia hydrate. Their report theorized that the ice likely formed underground, becoming exposed after a collision with another Kuiper Belt object sometime in the last few million years.

In 2012, she won (along with David C. Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles) the Shaw Prize "for their discovery and characterization of trans-Neptunian bodies, an archeological treasure dating back to the formation of the solar system and the long-sought source of short period comets" and the Kavli Prize (shared with Jewitt and Michael E. Brown) "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt and its largest members, work that led to a major advance in the understanding of the history of our planetary system".

Personal life

Luu enjoys traveling, and has worked for Save the Children in Nepal. She enjoys a variety of outdoor activities and plays the cello. She met her husband, Ronnie Hoogerwerf, who is also an astronomer, while working in the Netherlands in a tenured position at Leiden University. They have one child together.

Honors, awards and accolades

Selected publications

  • NASA Astrophysics Data System publication listing, Over 200 publications are listing

  • {{cite journal | last = Luu | first = Jane | author2 = D.C. Jewitt | author3 = C. Trujillo | name-list-style = amp | title = Water ice in 2060 Chiron and its implications for Centaurs and Kuiper Belt objects | journal = Astrophysical Journal | volume = 531 | pages = L151–L154 | date = 2000 | doi = 10.1086/312536 | pmid = 10688775 | issue = 2 | bibcode=2000ApJ...531L.151L|arxiv = astro-ph/0002094 | s2cid = 9946112

  • {{cite journal | last = Luu | first = Jane |author2=D.C. Jewitt | title = Deep Imaging of the Kuiper Belt with the Keck 10-Meter Telescope | journal = Astrophysical Journal | volume = 502 | issue = 1 | pages = L91–L94 | date = 1998 | doi = 10.1086/311490 | bibcode=1998ApJ...502L..91L| doi-access = free

  • {{cite journal | last = Luu | first = Jane | author2 = B. Marsden | author3 = D.C. Jewitt | author4 = C. Trujillo | author5 = C. Hegenrother | author6 = J. Chen | author7 = W. Offutt | name-list-style = amp | title = A New Dynamical Class of Object in the Outer Solar System | journal = Nature | volume = 387 | issue = 6633 | pages = 573 | date = 1997 | doi = 10.1038/42413 | bibcode=1997Natur.387..573L | s2cid = 4370529

  • {{cite journal | last = Luu | first = Jane |author2=D.C. Jewitt | title = Color Diversity among the Centaurs and Kuiper Belt Objects | journal = Astronomical Journal | volume = 112 | pages = 2310–2318 | date = 1996 | doi = 10.1086/118184 | bibcode=1996AJ....112.2310L}}

  • {{cite journal | last = Luu | first = Jane |author2=D.C. Jewitt | title = High Resolution Surface Brightness Profiles of Near-Earth Asteroids | journal = Icarus | volume = 97 | issue = 2 | pages = 276–287 | date = 1992 | doi = 10.1016/0019-1035(92)90134-S | bibcode=1992Icar...97..276L}}

  • {{cite journal | last = Luu | first = Jane | title = CCD Photometry and Spectroscopy of Outer Jovian Satellites | journal = Astronomical Journal | volume = 102 | pages = 1213–1225 | date = 1991 | doi = 10.1086/115949 | bibcode=1991AJ....102.1213L}}

  • Crystalline Ice on Kuiper Belt Object (50000) Quaoar (article co-written with David Jewitt, published in the December 9, 2004 issue of Nature)

  • The Shape Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects (paper co-written with Pedro Lacerda, June 2003)

  • Comet Impact on McMaster (presentation summary, November 2001)

  • Accretion in the Early Kuiper Belt I. Coagulation and Velocity Evolution (paper co-written with Scott J. Kenyon, published in May 1998 Astronomical Journal)

  • Optical and Infrared Reflectance Spectrum of Kuiper Belt Object 1996 TL66 (paper co-written with D.C. Jewitt, January 1998)

References

| last = Bartusiak | first = Marcia | title = The Remarkable Odyssey of Jane Luu | journal = Astronomy | volume = 24 | issue = 2 | pages = 46 | date = February 1996 | bibcode = 1996Ast....24...46B | url = http://www.marciabartusiak.com/uploads/8/5/8/9/8589314/odyssey_of_jane_luu.pdf

|title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (5430) Luu |last = Schmadel | first = Lutz D. |publisher = Springer Berlin Heidelberg |page = 464 |date = 2007 |isbn = 978-3-540-00238-3 |doi = 10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_5209 |chapter = (5430) Luu}}

|title = Minor Planet Discoverers (by number) |work = Minor Planet Center |url = http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/MPDiscsNum.html |date = 20 August 2016 |access-date = 25 August 2016}}

|title = MPC/MPO/MPS Archive |work = Minor Planet Center |url = http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html |access-date = 13 August 2016}}

References

  1. "Graduate Student Advisees by David Jewitt".
  2. Hữu Thiện, [http://vietsciences.free.fr/docbao/astronomy/janeluu.htm Jane Lưu lên núi ngắm sao...], Vietnamnet, 2004
  3. [http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/1998/mayjun/classnotes/featurealum2.html May/June 1998 Feature Alum, Jane Luu, '84. CLASS NOTABLE: JANE LUU, '84, Scoping the Cosmos] {{Webarchive. link. (2008-09-07 By Erika Check, '99)
  4. "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive".
  5. [http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/wisdom/extrasolar/Brown.pdf The Kuiper Belt] Michael E. Brown, [[Physics Today]], {{doi. 10.1063/1.1752422
  6. (2014-03-20). "Jane X. Luu".
  7. [http://imagiverse.org/interviews/janeluu/jane_luu_21_03_03.htm An Interview With...Jane Luu], 21 March 2003
  8. [http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/88inch/2.2-meter-public.htm University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope - Public Information] Richard J. Wainscoat
  9. (26 June 2020). "Maunakea's first large telescope celebrates 50 years of science {{!}} University of Hawaiʻi System News".
  10. (2006). "Marquis Who's Who".
  11. Chang, Kenneth. (December 9, 2004). "Astronomers Entertain Visions of Icy Volcanoes in Faraway Places". [[The New York Times]].
  12. "The Shaw Prize - Top prizes for astronomy, life science and mathematics".
  13. "Dresselhaus, Graybiel, Luu receive 2012 Kavli Prizes". Mit News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  14. (2009-03-31). "Women's History Month Profile: Jane Luu".
  15. link. (2017-10-20 29 May 2012)
  16. "2012 Kavli Prizes - The Kavli Foundation".
  17. "Gruppe 2: Astronomi, fysikk og geofysikk". [[Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters]].

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