Ravit Helled

She is a member of the research team of Juno, a probe to study the planet Jupiter. In 2015, she accurately calculated Saturn's rotational period together with Eli Galanti and Yohai Kaspi of the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 2015, selected among the 50 most influential women of Forbes Israel.

In 2015, Helled, along with Yohai Kaspi and Eli Galanti, succeeded in accurately calculating Saturn's rotation time (10 hours, 32 minutes, 45 seconds). The previous calculation was based on measurements of the Voyager 2 probe in 1981. However, calculations from the Cassini probe showed that there is a discrepancy in numbers and there is a gap in the understanding and calculating of the Saturn's rotation time. The problem is that the components of Saturn's atmosphere, especially hydrogen and helium, travel at different speeds and do not attest to Saturn's own rotation. Therefore, Helled's research was based on calculating the speed of rotation by measuring Saturn's gravitational field and calculating its density and oblateness (the fact that its polar diameter is smaller than its equatorial diameter).

In 2011 she was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences of Tel Aviv University. In 2015, she was appointed Associate Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences. In 2016 became a professor at the Institute for Computational Science at the University of Zurich. She is a member of the UZH Space Hub.

From 2007 to 2009 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Los Angeles in the Department of Planetary Science. In 2009, she was appointed a research fellow. During her time at the University of California, she studied the influence of planetesimals on the formation of gas giants, and modelled the outer planets in the solar system.

She completed her bachelor's degree in science at Tel Aviv University in 2004. She continued her doctoral studies at Tel Aviv University, which she completed in 2007. Her PhD work was on giant planet formation.

Ravit Helled Ita (born in 1980) is an Israeli planetary scientist and a professor in the department of astrophysics and cosmology at the University of Zürich. She studies gas giant planets in the solar system and exoplanets.