Post by University of Groningen

Fantastic news for Professor of Astronomy Amina Helmi: she has won the highly prestigious 2026 Kavli Astrophysics Prize 🏆 👏 Helmi wins the prize alongside her colleagues Vasily Belokurov (University of Cambridge) and Rodrigo Ibata (University of Strasbourg). They fundamentally changed the idea that the Milky Way is a relatively unchanging spiral galaxy. By analysing the movements and properties of millions of stars, they discovered the remnants of smaller galaxies that were swallowed up by the Milky Way in the distant past. ‘This prize is a wonderful recognition of years of international research into the history of our galaxy,’ says Helmi. ‘Thanks to missions such as Gaia, we are increasingly able to interpret the Milky Way as a historical archive of events that took place billions of years ago.’ Alongside the Nobel Prize, the Kavli Prize is regarded as one of the highest honours in science and is awarded every two years by Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi / The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The laureates will each receive a gold medal and a joint cash prize of one million US dollars. Read more about the research Helmi and her colleagues conducted 👇  https://lnkd.in/eRhXeMTS #astrophysics #astronomy #kavli #prize #milkyway #rijksuniversiteitgroningen #universityofgroningen Faculty of Science and Engineering - University of Groningen Kapteyn Astronomical Institute 📸 : Kavli Prize Committee