Amina Helmi facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Amina Helmi
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Amina Helmi in 2019
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| Born | 6 September 1970 Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina
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| Alma mater | Leiden University (PhD) |
| Known for | Helmi stream |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | University of Groningen University of La Plata Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics Utrecht University |
| Thesis | The formation of the Galactic Halo (2000) |
| Doctoral advisors | Tim de Zeeuw Simon White |
Amina Helmi (born October 6, 1970) is a famous Argentine astronomer and a professor at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She studies how galaxies like our own Milky Way formed and changed over time.
Contents
Amina Helmi's Journey in Science
Her Early Studies
Amina Helmi studied at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She earned her PhD degree there in 2000. Her special project was about how the "galactic halo" forms. This is the big, faint cloud of stars and dark matter that surrounds a galaxy. Her teachers were Tim de Zeeuw and Simon White.
Her Career Path
After finishing her studies, Amina Helmi worked in different places. She had jobs at the University of La Plata in Argentina, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, and Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Since 2003, she has been a professor at the University of Groningen. She became a full professor in 2014.
What Amina Helmi Researches
Understanding Galaxies
Amina Helmi's main research is about how galaxies grow and move. She is especially interested in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. She uses information like where stars are, how fast they move, how old they are, and what they are made of. This helps her understand how galaxies were built. This field of study is sometimes called "galactic archaeology," like digging up clues from the past!
Studying Dark Matter
She also studies something mysterious called dark matter. Scientists believe dark matter makes up a big part of the universe, but we can't see it directly. Amina Helmi uses powerful computer programs to simulate, or create models of, how galaxies behave. She also uses real data from telescopes, like the Gaia space telescope, to test her ideas.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Important Prizes
Amina Helmi has received many important awards for her work. In 2019, she was one of four scientists to win the Spinoza Prize. This is one of the highest awards for science in the Netherlands. It's like a very big "thank you" for amazing research.
Other Honors
In 2017, she became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. This is a group of the best scientists and artists in the Netherlands. She also won the Christiaan Huygensprize in 2004 and the Pastoor Schmeitsprize in 2010.
A special group of stars in space, called the Helmi stream, is named after her! This shows how important her discoveries are. In 2019, she also received a Suffrage Science award. In 2021, she won the Brouwer Award from the American Astronomical Society.
See also
In Spanish: Amina Helmi para niños
