安德烈-盖茨 天体物理学家

shiyi18

Andrea Ghez
Astrophysicist | Class of 2008
Using novel, ground-based telescopic techniques to identify thousands of new star systems and illuminate the role of super-massive black holes in the evolution of galaxies.

Portrait of Andrea Ghez
Photos for download >
Title
Astrophysicist
Affiliation
University of California, Los Angeles
Location
Los Angeles, California
Age
43 at time of award
Area of Focus
Astrophysics and Astronomy
Published January 27, 2008
ABOUT ANDREA'S WORK
Andrea Ghez is an astronomer who has opened important windows of galactic observation by overcoming previous limitations of ground-based instruments. Thermal fluctuations in the Earth’s atmosphere create distortions that prevent even large telescopes from resolving very closely spaced objects. Early in her career, Ghez adapted a technique known as speckle imaging, in which many very short exposures are digitally added, to work more effectively in the infrared spectrum (which penetrates cosmic dust much more readily than visible light). This advance allowed Ghez and others to identify thousands of tightly orbiting binary- and multiple-star systems, previously supposed to be individual stars. Comparing the age and orbital properties of these stars with previously identified, wider-spaced binary systems provides key insights into the interplay of mass, momentum, and magnetism that determines the course of star formation from amorphous clouds of cosmic gas. More recently, Ghez has advanced the use of adaptive optics in the infrared spectrum, in which an “artificial star” is created from ground-based lasers to correct for atmospheric distortions. Using both speckle imaging and adaptive optics on the 10m Keck telescope, Ghez and her colleagues mapped with extraordinarily high precision the movement of a group of stars in the Sagittarius constellation near the center of our galaxy. Through painstaking, long-term analyses, her group and another based in Germany identified a set of stars orbiting a common point at extraordinary velocities (measurable fractions of the speed of light), implying the presence of a super-massive black hole at the galactic center. Ghez has developed evidence that the stars closest to the black hole are surprisingly young. As Ghez continues to improve the spatial resolution and precision of instruments in deciphering the dust-obscured regions of the central galaxy, we will develop a much clearer picture of the role of central, massive black holes in the origin and evolution of the galaxies.

BIOGRAPHY
Andrea Ghez received a B.S. (1987) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. (1989) and Ph.D. (1992) from the California Institute of Technology. She has been affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, since 1994, where she is currently a professor of physics and astronomy. Her articles have appeared in such publications as Nature, the Astrophysical Journal, and Astronomy and Astrophysics.



安德烈-盖茨
天体物理学家 | 2008级
利用新颖的地面望远镜技术来识别数以千计的新星系，并阐明超大质量黑洞在星系演变中的作用。

安德烈-盖茨的肖像
照片下载 >
标题
天体物理学家
工作单位
加州大学洛杉矶分校
工作地点
洛杉矶，加利福尼亚
年龄
获奖时43岁
重点领域
天体物理学和天文学
发表于2008年1月27日
关于安德烈亚的工作
安德烈-盖茨是一位天文学家，他通过克服以往地面仪器的限制，打开了银河系观测的重要窗口。地球大气层中的热波动造成了扭曲，甚至使大型望远镜也无法分辨出间隔非常近的物体。在她职业生涯的早期，Ghez调整了一种被称为斑点成像的技术，在这种技术中，许多非常短的曝光被数字添加，以便在红外光谱中更有效地工作（它比可见光更容易穿透宇宙尘埃）。这一进展使Ghez和其他人能够识别数以千计的紧密运行的双星和多星系统，这些系统以前被认为是单个恒星。将这些恒星的年龄和轨道特性与以前确定的、间隔较宽的双星系统进行比较，可以对质量、动量和磁力的相互作用提供关键的见解，这种作用决定了从无定形的宇宙气体云中形成恒星的过程。最近，Ghez推进了自适应光学在红外光谱中的使用，在这种情况下，一个 "人造恒星 "由地面激光器产生，以纠正大气的扭曲。利用10米凯克望远镜上的斑点成像和自适应光学技术，盖兹和她的同事以极高的精度绘制了我们银河系中心附近人马座的一组恒星的运动。通过艰苦的长期分析，她的小组和另一个位于德国的小组确定了一组恒星以非凡的速度（可测量的光速的几分之一）围绕一个共同点运行，这意味着银河系中心存在一个超大质量的黑洞。Ghez已经开发出证据，证明最接近黑洞的恒星出奇地年轻。随着盖茨继续提高仪器的空间分辨率和精度来破译中央星系的尘埃遮蔽区域，我们将对中央大质量黑洞在星系的起源和演化中的作用有一个更清晰的认识。

个人简历
安德烈-盖茨在麻省理工学院获得学士学位（1987年），在加州理工学院获得硕士学位（1989年）和博士学位（1992年）。自1994年以来，她一直隶属于加州大学洛杉矶分校，目前是该校的物理学和天文学教授。她的文章出现在《自然》、《天体物理学杂志》和《天文学与天体物理学》等刊物上。