Andrea Ghez

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Andrea Mia Ghez is an astronomer at UCLA. She received a BS in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1987 and her Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology in 1991.

Her current research involves using high spatial resolution imaging techniques to study star-forming regions and the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy known as Sagittarius A. She uses the kinematics of stars near the center of the galaxy as a probe to investigate this region.

A selection of her publications includes:

  • 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 of Pre-Main Sequence Binary Stars: Resolving the Relationship Between Disks and Close Companions, 1997, ApJ, 490, 353
  • High Proper Motions in the Vicinity of 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

Ghez has received numerous awards including the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1994, the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy from the American Astronomical Society in 1998, and the Sackler Prize in 2004.