She Invented That A digital museum of women in science

Scientist Exhibit

Andrea Ghez

Astronomy & Astrophysics

1965 – Present United States

Led observations demonstrating a supermassive compact object at the centre of the Milky Way

Overview Institutions
Andrea Ghez

Overview

About Andrea Ghez

Andrea Ghez is an astronomer whose observations of stars near the centre of the Milky Way provided compelling evidence for a supermassive black hole. Her team used high-resolution infrared observations to track stellar orbits around Sagittarius A*. The measurements showed that an enormous mass is concentrated in an extremely small region at the Galactic Centre. Ghez shared the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Scientific Contribution

Key Discovery

Supermassive compact object at the Milky Way's centre

Long-term stellar-orbit observations demonstrating the presence of a supermassive compact object at the Galactic Centre.

Life Timeline

Important Moments

1994

career

Begins high-resolution observations of the Galactic Center

Ghez and her team began using high-resolution infrared techniques at the Keck Observatory to track stars near the centre of the Milky Way.

1998

discovery

Reports evidence for a supermassive compact object at the Galactic Center

Measurements of rapidly moving stars provided compelling dynamical evidence for a massive compact object at the centre of the Milky Way.

2000

discovery

Uses adaptive optics to sharpen Galactic Center observations

Ghez's group helped pioneer adaptive-optics observations that made increasingly precise measurements of stellar orbits around the Galactic Center possible.

2020

award

Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics

Ghez shared half of the Nobel Prize with Reinhard Genzel for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.

Places & Networks

Institutions