Vietnamese women have them named for meteors

Professor Luu Le Hang not only marked with noble awards but her surname was also named for a meteorite.

This petite woman is pursuing a tireless journey to discover the vast universe. About 20 years ago, Professor David C.Jewitt once evaluated the Retention Partnership as follows: 'Superstar is a beauty that deserves to describe her. She is building bridges in an area that needs to be explored. '

Born in 1963 in Vietnam, she came to the United States in 1975 and grew up here. According to information from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Ms. Liu Le Hang received a bachelor's degree in physics from Stanford University in 1984 and then moved on to study astronomy.

Ms. Hang said she came to astronomy by accident because she did not follow this industry in college. After graduating from Stanford University, she worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Here, she discovered that the Solar System photos were very interesting. It is this that motivates her to pursue astronomy.

Explore the Solar System

Professor Luu Le Hang didn't make the wrong decision when he switched to astronomy. Evidence that she achieved many achievements in the journey to discover the Solar System since 1987.

Professor Luu Le Hang

She said: 'In 1987, my colleague Dave Jewitt set a goal to discover whether the Solar System is really the same as what people have known for a long time. The inner part of the system has been fully expressed, including the earth and the surrounding planets and some asteroids .

However, at that time, beyond Jupiter, there were a number of giant planets along with their satellites, Pluto (in 2005 was "demoted" to asteroid 134340 Pluto) full of period. Odds and some objects with strange orbits that people do not know the origin. Outside the Solar System is really empty or has objects that people cannot see? This is the question we want to explore.

Therefore, we began a telescope survey to find solar system objects that are at least as far away as Saturn. By 1992, after five years of searching, we discovered a large number of small objects orbiting the Solar System and outside of Neptune.

This group of objects is now known as the Kuiper belt. This is a belt of ice objects outside Neptune. They are what remains in the formation of the Solar System.

Because it is quite far from the sun, these subjects have not enough time to grow too large. To date, among these, the largest known object is about the size of Pluto, about 2,000 km in diameter. Kuiper belt plays an important role (for astronomy - NV) because it is the most primitive area known in the Solar System and carries information about the process of forming the Solar System '.

So she opened a turning point in astronomy. Before reaching this achievement, she was awarded the American Astronomical Society in 1991. A year later, she received the Hubble Scholarship from the University of California at Berkeley.

Also in 1992, she received a doctorate at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her surname was given to an asteroid 5430 Luu because of the discovery of the Kuiper belt. Since 1994, she has been a professor at Harvard University and has taught at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Later, she returned to the US and currently holds the position of senior scientist at MIT's Lincoln Center.

World honor

With great contributions, in September 2012, Professor Luu Le Hang received the Kavli award, which was evaluated as the Nobel Prize for astronomy.

Launched in 2005, the Kavli Prize is awarded every two years in collaboration with the Norwegian Academy of Literature and Science, the Ministry of Education and Research of this country and the Kavli Foundation. The award honors scientists who have made outstanding contributions in three areas: astrophysics, nanotechnology and neuroscience.

The reward for each field is 1 million USD and a souvenir gold medal. Also in 2012, Ms. Liu Le Hang also won the Shaw Prize, founded by Shao Yuu, the father of TVB Television in Hong Kong in 2004.

The Shaw Prize is awarded each year to individuals with outstanding achievements in three areas: biology, medicine and astronomy. The prize money of the Shaw Prize for each field is also up to 1 million USD.

Professor Luu Le Hang said: 'On May 29, 2012, Dave and I received the announcement of being awarded Shaw in astronomy. Two days later, we received the announcement to receive the Kavli Prize of celestial physics.

We are almost shocked because we have never received such noble awards. We went to Olso, Norway, in early September to attend the Kavli awards ceremony. The king of Norway personally gave us the award. Two weeks later, we went to Hong Kong to attend the Shaw Awards. Indeed, both of these events are so wonderful that I have never had them. '