| Andrea Ghez | |
|---|---|
| Born | 16 June 1965 New York City, New York |
| Nationality | USA |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | UCLA |
| Alma mater | MIT & Caltech |
| Known for | The use of adaptive optics in studies of the galactic center.[1] |
Andrea Mia Ghez (born June 16, 1965) is an American astronomer and professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA.[2] 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 1992.[3] In 2004, Discover magazine listed Ghez as one of the top 20 scientists in the United States who have shown a high degree of understanding in their respective fields.[2]
Her current research involves using high spatial resolution imaging techniques, such as the adaptive optics system at the Keck telescopes,[4] to study star-forming regions and the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy known as Sagittarius A*.[5] She uses the kinematics of stars near the center of the galaxy as a probe to investigate this region.[6] The high resolution of the Keck telescopes[7] gave a significant improvement over the first major study of galactic center kinematics by Reinhard Genzel's group.[8]
In 2004, Ghez was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.[9] She's appeared in a long list of notable media presentations. The documentaries have been produced by organizations such as BBC, Discovery Channel, and The History Channel; in 2006 there was a presentation on Nova.[10]
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This graphic shows the partial orbits of many stars orbiting the black hole at the Galactic Center. Since 1995, object SO-2 has made almost a complete elliptical orbit. The graphic was made from snapshots of the position of the various stars over the last decade. Several decades more will be required to complete the orbits of some of these stars.