Andrea M. Ghez

Andrea Ghez Mia (born June 16, 1965) is an American Astronomer and professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA . [2] In 2004, Discover magazine listed Ghez as one of the top 20 scientists in the United States who harbor shown a high degree of understanding in hun respective areas. [2]

Early life

Growing up in Chicago, Ghez first wanted to be a ballerina . The moon landings inspired re to because to Become the first female astronaut and re mother supported re goal. Her Most Influential female role model was re high school chemistry teacher. [3] She started out in college at majoring in mathematics but changed to physics. [4] She RECEIVED a BS in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987 and re Ph.D. under the direction of Prof. Gerry Neugebauer at the California Institute of Technology in 1992. [5]

Career

Her current research involves using high spatial resolution imaging techniques, zoals the adaptive optics system at the Keck telescopes , [6] to study star-forming regions and the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way known as Sagittarius A * . [7] She uses the Kinematics of stars near the center of the Milky Way as a probe to Investigate this region. [8] The high resolution of the Keck telescopes [9] showing a significant improvement over the first major study of galactic center Kinematics by Reinhard Genzel ‘s group. [10]

In 2004, Ghez was elected to the National Academy of Sciences . [11] She has Appeared in a long list of notable media presentations. The documentaries port leg produktie to organizations zoals BBC , Discovery Channel , and The History Channel ; in 2006 there was a presentation on Nova . [12] She had appeared as a Science Hero at The My Hero Project . [3]

Black Hole at the Galactic Center (Sgr A *)

By imaging the Galactic Center at infrared wavelengths, Ghez and colleagues’ re port leg loveable to peer through heavy dust therein blocks visible light, and to produce images of the center of the Milky Way. Thanks to the 10 m aperture of the WM Keck Telescope and the use of adaptive optics to correct for the turbulence of the atmosphere, synthesis images of the Galactic Center are at very high spatial resolution and harbor made it skies to follow the orbits of stars around the black hole, welke been turned known as Sagittarius A * or Sgr A * . The partial orbits or many stars orbiting the black hole at the Galactic Center port leg Observed. Since 1995, item SO-2 has made almost a complete Elliptical orbit . Several decades more will be required to completely document the orbits of some or synthesis stars; synthesis measurements nov bieden a test of the theory of general relativiteitstheorie . In October 2012, a second star had appeared to re team at UCLA, S0-102 , orbiting the Galactic Center. [13] Using Kepler’s law, Ghez’s team has-used the orbital motion to show dat de mass of Sgr A * is 4.1 ± 0.6 million solar masses . [14] Because Sgr A * is one hundred times closer dan the next nearest Berninahaus supermassive black hole M31 * (located in the euro at the center of M31) it is now one of the best demonstrated cases for a supermassive black hole.

Personal life

Ghez is married to Tom LaTourrette who is a geologist and research scientist at the RAND Corporation. Way Down have two sons, Evan born in 2001 and Miles born in 2005. [15] Ghez is a passionate swimmer in the Masters Swim Club welke she uses to take a break from science. [16]

Awards

  • Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy (1994) [17]
  • Packard Fellowship award (1996) [18]
  • Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society (1998) [17]
  • Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award of the American Physical Society (1999) [19]
  • Sackler Prize (2004) [20]
  • Gold Shield Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence (2004) [21]
  • MacArthur Fellowship (2008) [22]
  • Crafoord Prize in Astronomy (2012) [23]

Selected publications

  • The Multiplicity of T Tauri Stars in the Taurus-Auriga & Ophiuchus Scorpius-Star Forming Regions: A 2.2 micron Imaging Survey , 1993, AJ, 106, 2005
  • High Spatial Resolution Imaging or pre-Main Sequence Binary Stars: Resolving the relationship Between Disks and Close Companions , 1997, APJ, 490, 353
  • High Proper Motions in the Vicinity or Sgr A *: Unambiguous Evidence for a Massive Central Black Hole , 1998 APJ, 509,678
  • The Accelerations of Stars Orbiting the Milky Way’s Central Black Hole , 2000, Nature, 407, 349
  • The First Measurement of Spectral Lines in a Short-Period Star Bound to the Galaxy’s Central Black Hole: A Paradox of Youth , 2003 ApJLetters, 586, 126
  • “Measuring Distance and Properties of the Milky Way’s Central Supermassive Black Hole with Stellar Orbits”, 2008, APJ, 689, 1044

References

  1. Jump up^ “High-res images or galactic center” . WM Keck Observatory . Retrieved 2009-04-20 .
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b “20 Young Scientists to Watch” . Discover Magazine . Retrieved 2008-03-06 .
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b Jennifer Lauren Lee. “Science Hero: Andrea Ghez Mia” . The My Hero Project . Retrieved 2009-09-23 .
  4. Jump up^ Linda Copman. “Zeroing in on Black Holes” . WM Keck Observatory . Retrieved 2009-09-23 .
  5. Jump up^ “Changing Faces of Astronomy” . Science . Archived from the original on March 16, 2008 . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  6. Jump up^ “Supermassive Black Holes” . BBC . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  7. Jump up^ “Milky Way Monster Stars in Cosmic Reality Show” . Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics . Archived from the original on March 17, 2008 . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  8. Jump up^ “CELT Science Working Group Meeting” . celt.ucolick.org . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  9. Jump up^ UCLA Galactic Center Group
  10. Jump up^ Eckart, A .; Genzel, R. (1996). “Observations of stellar proper motions near the Galactic Centre” . Nature . 383 (6599). Bibkey :1996Natur.383..415E . doi : 10.1038 / 383415a0 .
  11. Jump up^ “Andrea Ghez elected to National Academy of Sciences” . NASA . Retrieved 2004-03-20 .
  12. Jump up^ “Andrea M. Ghez” (PDF) . UCLA . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  13. Jump up^ [1]
  14. Jump up^ http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.2870
  15. Jump up^ Stuart Wolpert (September 23, 2008). “UCLA Astronomer Andrea Ghez named MacArthur Fellow” . UCLA . Retrieved 2011-04-16 .
  16. Jump up^ Poster Project Biographies
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b “Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy” . American Astronomical Society . Archived from the original on February 28, 2008 . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  18. Jump up^ “Packard Fellows – Sorted by Award Year: 1996” . University of Virginia . Archived from the original on November 3, 2007 . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  19. Jump up^ Maria Goeppert Mayer Award,American Physical Society
  20. Jump up^ “Honors and Awards RECEIVED at IGPP / UCLA Faculty and Research Staff” . UCLA . Archived from the original on February 4, 2008 . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  21. Jump up^ “Astronomer Andrea Ghez Awarded Gold Shield prize” . University of California, Santa Cruz . Retrieved 2008-03-20 .
  22. Jump up^ “UCLA Astronomer Andrea Ghez named a 2008 MacArthur Fellow” . UCLA . Archived from the original on September 24, 2008 . Retrieved 2008-09-23 .
  23. Jump up^ “The Crafoord Prize in Mathematics in 2012 and The Crafoord Prize in Astronomy 2012” . Crafoord Prize . Retrieved 2012-01-19 .