Alnadil Jouber (born 23108 AD, died 23200 AD) was an Intaki astronomer who is most famous for his observations of the region known as the Cloud Ring. Alnadil was the first to extensively study the region via telescope and advanced several theories regarding its unusual composition and history. While many of the theories have since been discredited, none have been outright disproved, and a small number of scientists continue to give them credence.
Early Life
Alnadil was born in 23108 AD on Intaki Prime to a patent clerk father and a mathematician mother. From an early age, Alnadil was regarded as a "dreamer", with his parents commenting that he often would spend the days laying out on a hill in a local park, simply staring up at the clouds. He did poorly in school, with teachers often commenting that he rarely paid attention during class and rarely turned in home work. However, he typically did well on tests, which confused his educators and parents.
It wasn't until he was a teenager that Alnadil first discovered his passion for the stars. Because he lived in a large city, the nighttime sky was merely a yellow-tinged haze to him. A field trip to the jungles of Intaki, however, gave him his first exposure to a night untainted by light pollution. He reportedly was so excited by the lights in the sky that he nearly passed out from hyperventilating.
He joined his school's astronomy club and, for the first time, seemed dedicated enough to his education to finally achieve high marks. When he graduated, he had achieved enough to receive a partial scholarship to a local college. While at college, he met his first wife Daalia; the two had a brief courtship before Alnadil proposed. They were married in 23130 AD.
Early Career
Once he received his doctorate in astronomy, Alnadil joined the research team at the Maidres Observatory. For several years, he toiled in relative obscurity, cataloging distant stars by stellar classification. The work frustrated him and was not something he considered "real" astronomy. In 23136 AD, he and his wife had their first child, a boy named Idran.
His work situation continued to deteriorate and the stress affected his home life. In 23139 AD, Daalia filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. In response, Alnadil threw himself even further into work, looking for something that would excite his mind and hold his interest.
He found it in 23141 AD, when he discovered the unusual concentration of interstellar gas clouds in a previously uninteresting region of space.
Cloud Ring
Alnadil's discovery of the gas clouds in a distant region of space was at first dismissed by his colleagues. However, Alnadil recognized them as unique. The clouds formed a massive ring, similar to a nebula, except with a different composition and more uniform structure. Alnadil called his discovery the Cloud Ring, a name which later stuck.
As Alnadil refined his theories on the creation of the Cloud Ring, and discovered more of its features, the rest of the astronomic community began to take notice. Alnadil received several grants from the fledgling Gallente Federation to take his research to space-based telescopes, which he leapt at. From space, he was able to take hundreds of spectacular photographs of the Cloud Ring, which captured the public imagination as well.
The discovery boosted Alnadil's career and he dedicated the rest of his life to advancing his theories on the Cloud Ring. It is now proven that an ancient stellar catastrophe created the Cloud Ring, though the stellar remnant that ejected the gas remains undiscovered, a conundrum that plagued Alnadil for the rest of his life. He believed the disaster had happened within human history, however, and that the gravimetric disturbances caused by the explosion may have destabilized wormholes and led to the EVE Gate's collapse.
The theories were controversial during Alnadil's life, though at one point a majority of astronomers accepted them as fact.
Later Years
In 23149 AD, Alnadil married one of his colleagues, a fellow astronomer named Saloani. The couple had two children, a daughter named Sidria and a son named Drean. The two divorced in 23158 AD, once Alnadil's theories regarding the Cloud Ring's origin began to come under attack. Alnadil reportedly became "obsessed" with proving his theories correct, to the detriment of his marriage.
Alnadil spent much of the rest of his life studying Cloud Ring, refining and defending his theories and searching for the stellar remnant of the explosion that created it. He theorized that an explosion large enough to create the ring must have come from a supermassive star, presumably forming a black hole. However, no black hole has yet been discovered that contains the mass and sits in the proper location to meet the criteria.
By 23190 AD, Alnadil had become destitute, living mostly off the generosity of former colleagues and the few universities that continued to bring him on as a guest lecturer. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 23198 AD and died in a government-funded nursing home in 23200 AD.