Zoltán Balog, PhD is an astronomer with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

The Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie is a research institute of the Max Planck Society. It is located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany near the top of the Koenigstuhl, adjacent to the historic Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl astronomical observatory.The institute was founded in...

 in Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. In 2006, while at the Steward Observatory

Steward Observatory

The University of Arizona's Steward Observatorys main office is located on the University's campus and is closely tied to the Department of Astronomy. Established in 1916 by its first director, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, and a $60,000 bequest made by Lavinia Steward in memory of her late husband...

 at the University of Arizona

University of Arizona

The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

, Dr. Balog's team was the first to observe the complete process of photoevaporation

Photo evaporation

Photoevaporation denotes the process when a planet is stripped of its atmosphere due to high energy photons and other electromagnetic radiation. If a photon interacts with an atmospheric molecule, the molecule is accelerated and its temperature increased...

 of protoplanetary disks.

Observations

Balog's team was the first to observe protoplanetary disk photoevaporation and the resulting dust tail using NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's Spitzer Space Telescope

Spitzer Space Telescope

The Spitzer Space Telescope , formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility is an infrared space observatory launched in 2003...

. The resulting paper was published in Astrophysical Journal

Astrophysical Journal

The Astrophysical Journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1895 by the American astronomers George Ellery Hale and James Edward Keeler. It publishes three 500-page issues per month....

. Balog's collaborators and co-authors are astronomers James Muzerolle, Erick T. Young, George Rieke and Kate Su, all of the University of Arizona at Tucson.

Balog is a member of the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) Guaranteed Time Oberservation (GTO) team led by Dr. George Rieke.

Photoevaporation

see main article Photo evaporation

Photo evaporation

Photoevaporation denotes the process when a planet is stripped of its atmosphere due to high energy photons and other electromagnetic radiation. If a photon interacts with an atmospheric molecule, the molecule is accelerated and its temperature increased...

Photoevaporation results when an extremely large star's radiation energy evaporates and literally blows away a protoplanetary disk (a mass concentration of gas and dust) in a process similar to that which forms a comet's tail. This process may explain why solar systems which have strayed too close to very large stars are often planetless.

Publications

He earned his PhD in Physics in 2005 from the University of Szeged

University of Szeged

The University of Szeged is one of Hungary's most distinguished universities, and is among the most prominent higher education institutions in Central Europe...

, Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

.
An updated bibliography may be found here http://www.mpia.de/homes/balog/index.html