James Webb program:
3 December 2024
Pengpei Zhu awarded the KHMW Young Talent Graduation Award for Astronomy
Award:
Congratulations to PhD student Pengpei Zhu who has been awarded the KHMW Young Talent Graduation Award for Astronomy by the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, for his master’s thesis at Leiden.
Every year, the Royal Dutch Society of Sciences (KHMW) awards several prizes to young science and technology talent in academic education. The awards are given in a variety of fields, such as biology, data science, and "Health Care Innovation for underserved communities".
This year, one of the two prizes in the field of astronomy was awarded to Pengpei Zhu (朱 芃佩), PhD student at the Cosmic Dawn Center.
Interacting galaxies
Pengpei Zhu received the prize for his master's thesis titled "NGC833 and NGC835 as a Case Study of Galaxy Interaction in Compact Groups: Kinematics, Ionization and Extinction".
NGC 833 and NGC 835 are two galaxies that happen to be located so near each other that their mutual attraction overcomes the expansion of the Universe, locking them in a gravitational dance that, in the far future, will make them merge into one big galaxy.
The two galaxies are part of a small group, called HCG 16, consisting of a total of seven galaxies. Utilizing observations of the group, obtained with the MUSE instrument on the Very Large Telescope in Chile, Pengpei Zhu was able to analyze how the galaxies move and how their internal motion is affected by their movement, thereby learning about the physics governing these violent events.
Among other interesting results, Pengpei Zhu discovered that NGC 835 is losing gas and stars through a so-called ‘tidal tail,’ while NGC 833 was previously disturbed by black hole activity.
The prize comes with a bonus of €3000.
Contact
About the award
- Award description: KHMW Young Talent Awards
- Award Ceremony at the Hodshon Huis in Haarlem
- Jury report