Over the moon: Mandurah girl makes history with discovery of two giant galaxies

Now an astrophysicist in South Africa, Jacinta could never have imagined she would be making history with the discovery of two giant radio galaxies.

"When I was seven years old I was at Assumption Catholic Primary and certainly fostered my love of science and that continued on when I went to Mandurah Catholic College and ultimately lead me to where I am now," she said.

"When I finished my undergraduate in physics at UWA...it was a time of a lot of investment in radio astronomy.

"I was really in the right place at the right time - I got these amazing opportunities to travel and work with the best radio astronomers in the world."

Those experiences led Jacinta to help discover the giant galaxies, which were once thought to be quite rare.

Jacinta said by detecting two of these giant galaxies in a relatively small patch of sky it suggested they were more common than previously thought.

"My job was to find out more about the galaxies and to figure out how likely it was that we found these two," she said.

"Once I did that I found out there was such a low probability of finding two of these giants in the field - it was something like .0003 per cent probability.

"It was not that we were exceptionally lucky, it was more the case that these giant radio galaxies must be much more common than we previously thought."

This conclusion has made waves internationally as it has given people more clues into galaxy evolution.

Jacinta said the project had been a highlight of her career.

"This was a really cool discovery. As soon as we saw it we thought, this could tell us something important," she said.

"It really also feels like I'm making a solid contribution to our knowledge with projects like these and it's so exciting to think what radio telescopes are going to do.

"It's definitely a highlight of my career and one of my best achievements."

To learn more about Jacinta's discovery listen to her podcast, The Cosmic Savannah.