Andrea M. Ghez
Andrea Mia Ghez ( born June 16, 1965 in New York City ) is an American astronomer.
Life
Ghez studied physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Bachelor 1987) and at Caltech (Master 1989). She received her PhD in 1992 was also at Caltech. After that, she was in 1992/93 as a post- doctoral student and Research Fellow at the Hubble Stewart Observatory of the University of Arizona. In 1994, she was Assistant Professor, Associate Professor in 1997 and 2000, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles ( UCLA).
Through the application of new techniques ( speckle optics and later adaptive optics ) in infrared astronomy Ghez example, could dissolve closely orbiting binary star systems and thus gain new insights into the formation of stars.
Using these techniques examined Ghez along with other scientists at the Keck Telescope in Hawaii over a period of several years, the movement of the stars in the center of the Milky Way ( Sagittarius A *). Here they could - as, incidentally, also a scientist at the Very Large Telescope to Reinhard Genzel - provide evidence of a supermassive black hole. This has a mass of more than 4 million solar masses. The observed near star moving with up to 4% of the speed of light (12000 km / s). Ghez discovered here also the surprisingly young age of some stars near the black hole.
Ghez is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2004) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
She has been married since 1993.
Awards
Writings
- Ghez, B. Klein, M. Morris, E. Becklin high proper motion stars in the vicinity of Sgr A *: unambiguos evidence for a supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy, Astroph. Journal, Volume 509, 1998, S.678
- Ghez, Morris, Becklin, Kremenek, Tanner The acceleration of stars orbiting the milky way 's central black hole, Nature, vol 407, 2000, p 349
- Ghez, Salim, Hornstein, Tanner, Becklin, Morris, Duchene Stellar orbits around the galactic center black hole, Astroph. Journal, Volume 620, 2005, S.744