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Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs
Amina Helmi: Breaking the Wall to Mapping the Milky Way
Falling Walls Foundation | Amina Helmi
How the Gaia Mission is unveiling Galactic History
For most of human history, the vast expanse of space beyond Earth has remained a mystery, theorised by philosophers and scientists. We’ve progressed from telescopes that could observe celestial objects in the 17th century to advancements like the Hubble Space Telescope, which has enabled us to study galaxies in unprecedented detail. Amina Helmi, Professor of Dynamics and Formation of the Milky Way at the University of Groningen, is a pioneering figure in the field of Galactic Archaeology, renowned for her discovery of merged galaxy debris using ESA’s Gaia mission and her influential contributions to understanding dark matter.
At Falling Walls, Helmi will captivate the audience with her latest breakthrough at Gaia—an intricate three-dimensional map of our galaxy, accomplished through the survey of nearly two billion celestial objects.
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Amina Helmi is Professor of Dynamics and Formation of the Milky Way at the University of Groningen (NL). She is one of the founders of “Galactic Archaeology”, a field that uses stars’ motions and chemical composition to reconstruct a galaxy’s history. She is well-known for the discovery of debris from galaxies that have merged with the Milky Way, most recently using ESA’s Gaia mission, as well as for modelling efforts to understand the nature of dark matter. Helmi is also known for her advisory roles in international astronomical organizations and in the development of various instruments. She has received numerous prizes including the Spinoza Prize in 2019, the highest Dutch academic award.
