Anne-Marie Lagrange

Anne-Marie Lagrange, born in the Rhône-Alpes region of France, is a French astrophysicist. Lagrange's work focuses on the research and study of extrasolar planetary systems. Lagrange is the holder of numerous scientific awards and honorary decorations, including Knight of the Legion of Honour (the highest French order of merit) and is a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 2013.

Early life and education Anne-Marie Lagrange was born on 12 March 1962 in the Rhône-Alpes region where her father was employed at the French electric utility company, Électricité de France S.A. and a stay-at-home mother. When she was 5 years old, her father was transferred to Ain and the family moved to Ceyzérieu where Lagrange went to primary school. She attended college in Culoz, at the Lycée du Bugey in Belley. In high school, she was passionate about physics and mathematics and decided to study higher. On the advice of her teacher and the local Rotary Club, she went to Classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles (CPGE) after obtaining her Baccalauréat in 1979. She discovered the professions of scientific research and thus found her vocation. From the 1990s, she began to search for exoplanets using direct imaging using novel adaptive optics. In the 2000s, her research became focused on the study of giant planets around young stars. In the 2000s, she specifically looked for giant planets around young stars. Thus, in 2005, she made the first direct observation of an exoplanet around a brown dwarf using deep adaptive-optics. In this research, she also uses the radial velocity method and extends this technique to other types of stars. In addition, she studies the impact of stellar activity on the detectability of planets.

Discovery of exoplanet β Pictoris b

Lagrange has devoted much of her career to the analysis of the star Beta Pictoris in the constellation Pictor. During her thesis in the 1980s, she studied the disc of debris that had just been discovered around this star. Several elements indicated the presence of a massive planet—β Pictoris b—but the scientific community remained skeptical. However, in the 2000s, Lagrange made several observations of the debris disc using adaptive optics coupled with direct imaging using a near-infrared spectrometer mounted on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). On November 18, 2008, after processing the data taken in 2003 using reference star differential imaging and modern image processing tools, Lagrange discovered the exoplanet Beta Pictoris b orbiting around the star, confirming her earlier predictions.

Giant planet β Pictoris c

In 2019, Lagrange and a worldwide team announced the discovery of the giant planet Beta Pictoris c that was equivalent to 9 Jovian masses. Lagrange's team determined that the exoplanet is 23-million-years old, 63.4 light years away, and completes its orbit in approximately 1,200 days. This exoplanet was found using the radial velocity method. The researchers analyzed 10 years of data. The teams were from Lagrange's laboratory at CNRS/Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur and from other French laboratories (Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, Institut d'astrophysique de Paris (Sorbonne Université)) to researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the South African Astronomical Observatory, the University of Warwick, Leiden Observatory, European Southern Observatory, Universidad de Chile, and Universidad de Valparaiso. This new discovery could help scientists better understand the formation of planetary systems and their evolution in the early stages.

Prizes Lagrange has received a number of prizes during her academic career including:

CNRS Bronze medal (1994) Digital prize of the Société Française d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique (1997) Deslandres prize from the French Academy of Sciences (2003) Medal from the Joseph Fourier University (2004) Fondation Cino del Duca prize (2005) Prize of the French Influence of the association ARRI (2007) Dargelos prize of the École Polytechnique (2009) Knight of the Legion of Honour (2010) Irène Joliot-Curie Prize, female scientist of the year (2011) Member of the French Academy of Sciences (2013) fr:Trophées des femmes en or, Trophy in the category "Innovation" and Trophy of the public (2013) The National Order of Merit (France) (2015) Jean-Ricard Prize of the Société française de physique (2017) Public school (Ceyzérieu-01) named after her (2018) Listed among the 40 Women Forbes (2020/2021) Listed among the 50 Women Forbes Europe-Africa-Middle-East (2022) Distinguished Visitor STSci "Caroline Herschel Program" (2023–2025)

Publications Lagrange is the author of numerous scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals and of several books.

Observer le ciel de nuit, Paris, Nathan, coll. "Carnet du jeune Robinson", 1998 (, notice BnF no FRBNF37026346). Fascicule d'astronomie pour les jeunes, Nathan, 1999. Les grands observatoires du monde (avec Serge Brunier), Paris, Éditions Bordas, 2002, 240 p. (, notice BnF no FRBNF38967669). L'observation en astronomie (avec Pierre Léna et Hervé Dole), Paris, Éditions Ellipses, 2009, 207 p. (, notice BnF no FRBNF41353630).