Astrophysicist Questions

[Leoma Cianchetti]

Thisis the "Ask an Astrophysicist" service of the Imagine the Universe! web site. We are a small group of volunteers who work on space-based astronomical observations, including cosmic-ray, gamma-ray, and X-ray astrophysics. Our research subjects are often exotic, like black holes, dark matter, and the origin of the universe.

We have already answered many questions, and have an extensive archive of past questions and answers. Please consult the archive first to see if your question has already been answered. We attempt to answer as many questions as possible, but we are a small group of volunteers and cannot afford the time to answer all the incoming questions.

My name is Juhlia. I am a student at Waialua High and Intermediate School and I am currently exploring areas of interest to guide me in determining my future career path. I am hoping you might be able to answer 10 questions you have about your job?

What is your job title and what exactly do you do?

What is a typical day like?

What has your career path looked like?

What jobs and experiences prepared you for your current position?

Is there anything you would have done differently in pursuing your current field?

What skills are most desirable and important in this field?

What is the most rewarding part of your job? What is the most challenging?

How many years did you have to spend to become an Astronomer?

What is your job title and what exactly do you do?: I am an Astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. My job involves developing astronomical observatories which operate at radio wavelengths for use by astronomers all over the world. I also conduct research on a variety of astrophysics topics which use a wide range of observatories.

What is a typical day like?: A typical day is in fact not very typical. I normally have a wide range of tasks that I can work on, and I organize those tasks based on what needs to get done on a typical day. Those tasks include working on radio telescope observatory development and tasks associated with my own research.

What jobs and experiences prepared you for your current position?: I have been fortunate to be able to work closely with radio telescope observatory instrumentation and software. This experience has made it possible for me to assist with the development of new radio telescope observatories throughout my career.

What skills are most desirable and important in this field?: Having a very thorough understanding of physics is essential. Also excellent skills in computer programming are critical to being a professional astronomer.

What is the most rewarding part of your job? What is the most challenging?: I think that the most rewarding part of my job is that I get to help develop radio astronomical observatories for use by astronomers all over the world. This is, in fact, also the most challenging part of my job.

Before asking a question, take a look at questions we have answered in the past to see if you can find an answer. You might learn some other cool stuff too! Questions are organized roughly by complexity within each subcategory. Beginner answers should be understandable to most people, Intermediate questions require a bit of physics and math background, and Advanced questions get into very difficult astronomical concepts.

Sven achieved his PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Bonn, where he worked on higher-order statistics to maximize the information that we can extract from the weak gravitational lensing surveys. Now he works within the DESI survey to study the properties of the observed galaxies using the weak gravitational lensing effect. He is mainly interested in constraining fundamental physics using cosmological observations, but is also enthusiastic for science outreach and philosophical aspects of physics and cosmology. In his free-time he likes to spend time in the forest, either hiking or mountain biking.

Astrophysicist and folklorist. I'm going to suggest that at first glance, they appear pretty far apart because, of course, the stereotype is the rational, cold world of hard science and the warm, fuzzy human gathered around the campfire. Tell me how they coexist in your world.

The myths were meant to educate. They were also meant to entertain, but a lot of them were pedagogical. And then, after myths, I feel like we moved into philosophy, thinking about stuff in more rational, consistent ways, but without the tools and science that we have today. And then we moved into science. So I see that they are very connected in their purpose, even if they're not super connected in their methods.

I understand that you were the first person to graduate from Harvard with a degree in astrophysics and mythology. And I'm curious about whether it was a hard sell to convince the people around you that these two specialties could somehow be in conversation with one another.

Yes, Mary, it was so hard. Harvard is old. And they are very set in their ways. So they have this list of pre-approved majors that you can combine. Surprisingly, astrophysics and folklore was not on that list of pre-approved double majors. So I had to get a little creative. Both the Astronomy and Folklore departments were two of the smallest undergrad departments at Harvard. They had, I think, four people in the folklore department and maybe eight people in astronomy. So I went to the heads of both departments and I said, basically, "Look, you're too small to risk losing a body. Let me study both."

Getting people to think like a scientist means getting them to think through curiosity, and then try to answer the questions that they're asking in a logical, rational, consistent way. I don't think [it] has to mean memorizing a lot of scientific facts. It's helpful and it's interesting and cool, but it is not the most important part of being a scientist. For me, it's a mindset and it's a rhythm that you go through in the way that you approach problems.

Being a folklorist has given me a really great sense of empathy for different ideas and cultures and ways of looking at the world. As a kid, I loved fantasy. I dabbled in Wicca, and I loved learning about paganism. But I didn't really believe it. But since I have started studying folklore, I see the value in looking at the world through a different lens that is not scientific in the strictest sense of the word. So now, I can see that there is truth in a lot of myths that people have told, and I can see that there is value. But I do really believe that most people would be better off in most circumstances if they did understand the science. So I always try to blend them together.

A lot of your work, it seems to me, in astrophysics and in folklore, is done with a very big question in mind: why are we here? If I were to ask you that question now, how would you answer?

And as an astronomer, I have focused on the here part. I have studied why the perfect conditions for life that looks like us just happen to have occurred in this part of the galaxy at this time. I love thinking about the chemistry and the time dependence and the radiation dependence of the galactic habitable zone.

It is absolutely amazing that 13 plus billion years of the universe led to a little average star that created a planet that was just the right distance away from it to have liquid water and then create life. That one day got smart enough to ask why it's there and how we got there. And that's beautiful to me. I can see the connections through history that led to this point.

This makes it all sound easy, but I think I should add a warning. Getting a permanent (research) position at a university or similar institute in astronomy is highly competitive, and to get there takes a combination of hard work, high competence, high motivation, and luck. Many highly competent people end up moving out of astronomy and use their skills elsewhere, for the simple reason that society does not spend enough money on astronomy to employ all highly competent people who want to spend their life on astronomy.

The main way into astrophysics is - as James K outlines in his answer well - to study physics with an emphasis on astrophysics or astronomy. The entry into these academic careers are easier for those who already are interested in / good at physics and especially maths. Typically one continues after the BSc with a masters and a PhD in a field of your (astrophysical, planetary, solar system, astronomical,...) interest, usually at a university, observatory or other research institutes with interests in these fields. After a PhD one continues as post-grad and/or research fellow at research institutions.

There are people who did a BSc and/or MSc in Engineering subjects (rocket science of course being a favourite one), and then changing into astrophysics via instrumentation - or just simply switching to astrophysics directly in their PhD.

You can get there from a mathematical or computer science background while looking for applications... The necessary simulations in theoretical (astro)physics and especially cosmology are far from easy math and simple algorithms, so a sound mathematical and algorithmic understanding will get you very far there.

Generally, it's science. And you can only really do science, and be good at it if you love what you do. That includes learning, being curious, inventing, combining and applying methods and approaches on a problem and generally being not shy of mathematics is somewhat a pre-requisite.

Lastly a word of caution - gerrit phrased it well on a comment to another answer: Getting a permanent (research) position at a university or similar institute in astronomy is highly competitive, and to get there takes a combination of hard work, high competence, high motivation, and luck. Many highly competent people end up moving out of astronomy and use their skills elsewhere, for the simple reason that society does not spend enough money on astronomy to employ all highly competent people who want to spend their life on astronomy.

3a8082e126