65th Annual STS (2005-2006)
Finalists
Adam Ross Solomon

NEW YORK
Adam Ross Solomon, 16, of Bellmore, entered the Intel Science Talent Search with a space science project on brown dwarfs - one of the busiest new fields in astronomy - and established a new methodology for determining their age and mass. Brown dwarfs are too massive to be considered planets, but not massive enough to fuse hydrogen into helium as true stars do. They exhibit significant variation in their near-infrared spectra as they grow progressively dimmer and cooler with time. Adam analyzed light spectra from 53 brown dwarfs, and found that certain features were closely linked to youth, which provided a means to estimate a brown dwarf's age and mass. His findings on age estimation have been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. Prior to this project, Adam discovered a binary star, research that is also submitted for publication. He is fluent in Hebrew, and his honors include the Richard Sipala Award for Most Distinguished Categorical Project in Earth, Space, Energy. Adam attends John F. Kennedy High School, where he is assistant editor of the school newspaper and runs track. He plans to study astrophysics at Harvard or Caltech, and is the son of Dr. Scott and Edna Solomon.