Meet the astronomer digging into the Milky Way's 'fossils'
Summary
Amina Helmi is an astronomer who studies the history of the Milky Way by analyzing stars as "cosmic fossils." Using data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, she helped show that the Milky Way grew through collisions with smaller galaxies, not just steady growth.Key Facts
- Amina Helmi is a galactic archaeologist focused on the Milky Way's history.
- She uses chemical measurements of stars, which act like DNA, to trace their origins.
- The Gaia space mission collected data on about 1.5 billion stars, mapping their positions and movements.
- Helmi’s research revealed that the Milky Way collided with a smaller galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus around 10 billion years ago.
- This merger created a halo of stars around the Milky Way and new stars in its disk.
- Helmi won the Kavli Prize for her work, which is a major award in astrophysics.
- The prize recognizes her discovery that the Milky Way formed through a series of galactic mergers.
- She works at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and is originally from Argentina.
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