Isabella Henum

I am a doctoral student supervised by David Hobbs in the Division of Astrophysics, Department of Physics, at Lund University. My research focuses on understanding the movement of stars and the structure of our Galaxy through astrometry, which involves measuring the kinematics and dynamics of stars - their positions, movements, and the forces acting on them.

The space telescope Gaia is currently mapping billions of stars in our Galaxy. Gaia observes in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum and, therefore, cannot observe stars in the densest and most central parts of our Galaxy, where light is absorbed by dust. A new mission, GaiaNIR, planned for 2025, will be able to observe these hidden regions as it is designed to observe in the Near Infrared (NIR) part of the spectrum.

My research will focus on how combining data from Gaia and GaiaNIR can enhance our understanding of our Galaxy's structure. This research will support the scientific proposals for the GaiaNIR mission currently being developed for the European Space Agency.