Her family moved from New York to Chicago when she was a child, and Ghez attended the
University of Chicago Lab School.[6][11] The
Apollo program Moon landings inspired Ghez to aspire to be the first female
astronaut, and her mother encouraged that goal by purchasing a telescope.[12][13] Her most influential female role model was her high school chemistry teacher.[14]
Ghez's research employs high spatial resolution imaging techniques, such as the
adaptive optics system at the
Keck telescopes,[20] to study star-forming regions and the
supermassive black hole at the center of the
Milky Way known as
Sagittarius A*.[21] She uses the
kinematics of stars near the center of the Milky Way as a probe to investigate this region.[22] The high resolution of the Keck telescopes[23] gave a significant improvement over the first major study of galactic center kinematics by
Reinhard Genzel's group.[24]
Ghez has appeared in many television documentaries produced by networks such as the
BBC,
Discovery Channel, and
The History Channel. In 2006 she was in an episode of the
PBS series Nova.[28] She was identified as a Science Hero by
The My Hero Project.[12] In 2000, Discover magazine listed Ghez as one of 20 promising young American scientists in their respective fields.[2]
By imaging the
Galactic Center at
infrared wavelengths, Ghez and her colleagues have been able to peer through heavy dust that blocks visible light, to reveal images of the center of the Milky Way. Thanks to the 10-meter aperture of the
W.M. Keck Telescope and the use of
adaptive optics to correct for the turbulence of the atmosphere, these images of the Galactic Center are at very high spatial resolution and have made it possible to follow the orbits of stars around the black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). The partial orbits of many stars orbiting the black hole at the Galactic Center have been observed. One of the stars,
S2, has made a complete
elliptical orbit since detailed observations began in 1995. Several decades more will be required to completely document the orbits of some of these stars. These measurements may provide a test of the theory of
general relativity. In October 2012, a second star,
S0-102, was identified by her team at UCLA, orbiting the Galactic Center.[29] Using
Kepler's third law, Ghez's team used the orbital motion to show that the mass of Sgr A* is 4.1±0.6 million
solar masses.[30] Because the Galactic Center where Sgr A* is located, is one hundred times closer than
M31 where the next nearest supermassive black hole (M31*) is,[31] it is one of the best demonstrated cases for a supermassive black hole.[32][33]
In 2020, Ghez shared the
Nobel Prize in Physics with
Roger Penrose and Reinhard Genzel, for their discoveries relating to
black holes.[4] Ghez and Genzel were awarded one half of the prize for their discovery that a supermassive black hole most likely governs the orbits of stars at the center of the
Milky Way.[34] Ghez was the fourth woman to win the physics Nobel since its inception, being preceded by
Marie Curie (1903),
Maria Goeppert Mayer (1963), and
Donna Strickland (2018).[3]
Ghez, A. M.; Duchêne, G.; Matthews, K.; Hornstein, S. D.; Tanner, A.; Larkin, J.; Morris, M.; Becklin, E. E.; S. Salim (January 1, 2003). "The First Measurement of Spectral Lines in a Short-Period Star Bound to the Galaxy's Central Black Hole: A Paradox of Youth". Astrophysical Journal Letters. 586 (2): L127.
arXiv:astro-ph/0302299.
Bibcode:
2003ApJ...586L.127G.
doi:
10.1086/374804.
S2CID11388341.
Ghez, A. M.; Salim, S.; Weinberg, N. N.; Lu, J. R.; Do, T.; Dunn, J. K.; Matthews, K.; Morris, M. R.; Yelda, S. (December 20, 2008). "Measuring Distance and Properties of the Milky Way's Central Supermassive Black Hole with Stellar Orbits". Astrophysical Journal. 689 (2): 1044–1062.
arXiv:0808.2870.
Bibcode:
2008ApJ...689.1044G.
doi:
10.1086/592738.
S2CID18335611.
Books
Ghez, Andrea Mia; Cohen, Judith Love (2006). You Can Be a Woman Astronomer. Cascade Pass.
ISBN978-1-880599-78-5.[18]
Personal life
Ghez has two sons.[47] Ghez is an active swimmer in the UCLA Masters Swim Club.[48][49]
^Ghez, A. M.; Salim, S.; Weinberg, N. N.; Lu, J. R.; Do, T.; Dunn, J. K.; Matthews, K.; Morris, M.; Yelda, S.; Becklin, E. E.; Kremenek, T.; Milosavljevic, M.; Naiman, J. (December 20, 2008). "Measuring Distance and Properties of the Milky Way's Central Supermassive Black Hole with Stellar Orbits". The Astrophysical Journal. 689 (2): 1044–1062.
arXiv:0808.2870.
Bibcode:
2008ApJ...689.1044G.
doi:
10.1086/592738.
S2CID18335611.
Finkbeiner, Ann (March 20, 2013), "As an early adopter of astronomical technology, Andrea Ghez is revealing secrets about the giant black hole at the Galaxy's centre", Nature, 495 (7441): 296–298,
Bibcode:
2013Natur.495..296F,
doi:10.1038/495296a,
PMID23518544