Argentine astrophysicist Amina Helmi, born in Bahía Blanca and trained at the National
University of La Plata, has been awarded the 2026 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics—one of the
world’s most prestigious scientific distinctions—granted by the Norwegian Academy of
Science and Letters.
The Academy chose to award the prize for her discovery of fossil evidence of ancient galactic
mergers, fundamental for understanding how our galaxy formed and evolved. Helmi’s work
made it possible to identify stellar streams—remnants of small galaxies that merged with the
Milky Way—and to demonstrate that these events can be traced in the stars of the local halo.
Her research on the phenomenon known as Gaia–Enceladus Sausage revealed that this major
merger contributed significantly to the structure of the inner halo and affected the early
galactic disk between 8 and 11 billion years ago.
Helmi is a global reference in chemodynamics, an approach that combines detailed chemical
abundances with kinematic information to distinguish stars formed within the Milky Way
from those originating in galaxies that were later absorbed.
Currently based in the Netherlands, Helmi shares the award with Vasily Belokurov and
Rodrigo Ibata, recognized for their discoveries on the dynamic history of the Milky Way.

Photo: Liwlig Norway.

The full story of her career and the article “We All Share the Same Sky” can be found at the
following link: https://www.kavliprize.org/bio/amina-helmi