Biography
Andrea Ghez used the Keck telescopes and adaptive optics to follow stars orbiting the centre of the Milky Way with extraordinary precision. Her measurements, independent of Genzel's, confirmed a four-million-solar-mass black hole, Sagittarius A*. In 2020 she became the fourth woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Scientific contributions
- Independently proved the Milky Way hosts a central supermassive black hole
- Pioneered adaptive-optics imaging of the Galactic Center with Keck
- Shared the Nobel Prize in Physics (2020)
Major discoveries
Observatories, instruments & objects
Awards
Knowledge connections
- Part ofContemporary Astronomy
- Worked atW. M. Keck Observatory
- ReceivedNobel Prize in Physics
- DiscoveredThe Milky Way's Central Black Hole
- StudiesBlack Hole
- StudiesSupermassive Black Hole
Sources & references
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- The Nobel PrizeThe Nobel Foundation
Official record of Nobel laureates, prize motivations, and award years.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.