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This ad has been adapted from a version published by the American Astronomical Society. Read the original story.
CU Boulder astrophysicist Ann-Marie Madigan has won a prestigious award in recognition of her research exploring the dynamics of objects in space – from stars circling black holes to icy dwarf planets in the Outer Solar System.
This week, the Division of Dynamic Astronomy (DDA) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) awarded Madigan its 2021 Vera Rubin Early Career Award. The scientist, assistant professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences and a fellow at JILA, will give a talk at the 53rd DDA Annual Meeting in Spring 2022.
“I am honored to receive the Vera Rubin Early Career Award and look forward to presenting at next year’s DDA conference,†Madigan said. “I also want to thank my entire research group here in Boulder. They are the ones who do the hard work, and I’m really lucky to be able to work with them. “
This annual honor recognizes an early career energist who demonstrates excellence in scientific research in dynamic astronomy or a closely related field, has impacted and influenced these fields and shows a promise of continued excellence, such as This is demonstrated by past practices in research, teaching and advancement. and support for the field of dynamic astronomy. Madigan received the 2021 award for his work on the dynamics of quasi-Keplerian systems composed of individually small but collectively massive objects.
Madigan received his PhD from Leiden University in 2012 under the supervision of Yuri Levin, then held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley, before his appointment to CU Boulder in 2016. His work spans a wide range. from astrophysical and planetary sciences, from the dynamics of stars and gas around supermassive black holes to the collective gravity of minor planets in the outer solar system.
Interactions between stars and their remnants with supermassive black holes produce exotic astrophysical events, including star tidal disturbances, hypervelocity star ejections in a galaxy’s halo, and inspirations of driven compact objects. by gravitational waves in the central black hole. Madigan has advanced our understanding of the statistical properties of star orbits around these supermassive black holes, the interactions of intermediate black holes with supermassive holes, and the stability of stellar disks in active galactic nuclei. She also probed the history of star formation near galactic nuclei, the evolution of their orbits, and the mechanism by which they can be disrupted and ultimately captured by the central black hole.
Madigan also applied his knowledge of Quasi-Keplerian systems to other scales. For example, she suggested a possible mechanism by which observed alignments of the orbits of long-lived Kuiper Belt objects could arise, and she proposed that the mutual gravity of comets could cause a periodic influx of comets into the solar system. internal.
