What's it like being an astronomer?

Christopher Pilny for redOrbit.com – @NotRealChainsaw

Every so often, readers submit questions to our “Ask the Astronomer” series, wondering various things about the universe, space travel, or complex physics concepts we have no freaking answer for. Thankfully, when this happens, we have a few resident astronomers always willing to jump in and help us out–like professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt University, Dr. David Weintraub. Aside from being an astronomer, Dr. Weintraub is also a published author, most recently with his exploration of religious perspectives on alien life Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?. He also directs programs in the Communication of Science and Technology and in Scientific Computing at Vanderbilt.

Thus, when a student emailed us saying, “For school, I have to interview a person with my dream job and I would be very grateful if you could answer some of my interview questions,” we knew exactly who to send them to.

We don’t always publish the Ask the Astronomer responses; normally we just send them to the reader. But because Dr. Weintraub went into such great detail, and it seemed like a question a lot of young (and grownup!) astronomers might want answered, we had to run it.

So, thank you to the student; all the questions below are his. And thank you to Dr. Weintraub. Enjoy!

What events in your life inspired you to become an astronomer?

Every astronomer would have a different answer to this question. Certainly, many spent their childhoods watching the skies as amateur astronomers; but many others never looked at the sky, instead spending their early years thinking about how stars or black holes worked. I didn’t memorize the stars or constellations; I didn’t own a telescope. But I happened to grow up when NASA was sending the first rockets to Mars and the USA and Russia were racing to the Moon. I somehow got hooked on the ideas that outer space was a fascinating place full of important, unanswered questions and that I might be allowed to participate in asking and answering those questions.

What does a typical work day look like as an astronomer?

Some astronomers are college professors like me. My typical work day involves some teaching, some time working with and advising students, some time writing papers and doing research, and some time in committee meetings, doing the busy work that makes universities run. If I’m lucky, I might be able to spend one-third of my time on astronomy research, but I’m rarely that lucky. A few lucky astronomers work in full-time research positions, while others work in support positions at telescopes or research institutes where they get 10% to 50% of their time for research and the rest of their time is devoted to making sure the telescope or research institute infrastructure (software, perhaps) is up and running and ready to support the work of other astronomers.

What college majors and degrees did you take to become an astronomer?

The typical astronomer is a person with good math and computer skills, who is good at solving problems, and who happens to want to ask questions about stars and galaxies and planets and comets and the universe.  And to solve those problems, they need to know some physics and some astrophysics, and maybe some other stuff, too. So…

Most astronomers major in physics and also take lots of math and computer science classes; however, there is no single path into astronomy. At the undergraduate level, chemistry, computer science, biology, and engineering could also be paths into astronomy. Keep in mind that in the 21st century, astronomy involves not just looking through telescopes (or looking at the data collected with telescopes), but building and designing those telescopes; building and designing the instruments and detectors that are mounted on those telescopes; writing the software and designing the computers that analyze and store and transfer the data collected with those telescopes; building the rockets that put some of those telescopes in space and send some of them to other planets; building the robots that run the instruments and detectors that do the work on the satellites and telescopes in space; and inventing the hardware and electronics that can withstand the rigors of high elevation and outer space. Also, astronomy, as a field, needs people with management skills to run enormous facilities and data centers.

What is the history of this occupation?

Two hundred years ago, most astronomers were college professors or wealthy aristocrats who built their own telescopes. Pre-World War II (before 1941), astronomy was done only with the human eye, or a photographic camera, using light that the human eye can see. Every university had its own little telescope just outside of town.

Post-World War II (1945-present), astronomy changed. Now, we have gamma ray telescopes and X-ray telescopes and ultra-violet telescopes (all in space), visible light telescopes, infrared telescopes, sub-millimeter and millimeter wave telescopes, and radio telescopes. We have telescopes orbiting other planets and giant telescopes that cost 100s of millions to billions of dollars. Few astronomers go to telescopes anymore. Most data is collected robotically and the amount of data collected is staggeringly large, and growing larger. Astronomy is now done by large, international teams working on projects that require a decade or more to plan, another decade to build, and a third to analyze the data, rather than by lone individuals working at their own telescopes on whatever project they think might be of interest.

How many years of college did you take to become an astronomer?

Most astronomers study for four years in college to earn their bachelor’s (BS or BA) degree.  They then go on to graduate school and study for five or six more years to earn their doctoral degree (PhD). Most then are post-doctoral scholars for three to six more years (sort of like a post-medical school residency for doctors). At that point, school is finished.

What is the main purpose of being an astronomer in your point of view and what accomplishments do they achieve?

This question is too big and broad to answer easily. Some work done by some astronomers is critical to the everyday life of almost everyone, though most people don’t know that. For example, some astronomers study the Sun, and our telescopes that study the Sun allow us to predict when enormous storms on the Sun will, a few hours later, cause damage to Earth-orbiting satellites and our electrical power grids at northern latitudes if we don’t otherwise put them into protective mode. Astronomers’ knowledge of the physical behavior of the Sun allows us to protect our technological infrastructure from the Sun’s erratic activity.

The work of astronomers used to be about making calendars, which turns out to be a very difficult task, but which we now have mastered, though astronomers still tell the time-keepers when to add a fraction of a second to our clocks every few years. Astronomers still are the ones who keep track of the positions of stars, which is of critical importance for all of our GPS systems, which in turn is of critical importance for every airplane and ship and any other device on the planet knowing where it is at any given time.

The work of astronomers, more generally, is less obviously connected to the day-to-day activities and health and well-being of most folks.

Most astronomers think about the purpose of their work as learning about the universe and learning about mankind’s place in the universe. Those sound like fairly abstract, not very down-to-earth quests. In fact, astronomers are asking big questions, questions about who we are and about why we exist, about whether we are alone in the universe. Astronomers ask questions that help us understand ourselves.

But also, many ‘big picture’ questions astronomers ask should ultimately lead to practical answers. Understanding the history of the climates of Venus and Mars should helps us understand the past and likely future of the Earth’s climate, and whether we can and should be better and more active participants in helping control the Earth’s climate. Similarly, understanding the behavior of other stars like the Sun should help us understand the role the Sun has played and does and will play in shaping the Earth’s climate.

What is the best part, or the greatest benefit, of working in your field?

I get to wake up every morning and say “I can’t wait to get out of bed and go to work.” Of course, lots of other people, I hope, have very different jobs but also say the same thing. One benefit is that I am contributing to the generation of new knowledge for humankind; another benefit is that I am passing on my knowledge to the next generation of students, and I find doing that very rewarding. Being an astronomer is also fun. I get to travel to interesting places and meet and work with interesting and smart people.

Who in your life helped you become an astronomer?

My parents gave me the encouragement to learn and the freedom to pursue the career of my dreams. That’s a great gift. I had many teachers who simply encouraged me to pursue learning; they also gave me a great gift. I never had an astronomy or physics teacher who motivated me to pursue astronomy, though I had a math teacher in fifth grade and a physics teacher in high school who were particularly supportive in convincing me that I was good at math and physics.

What is your specific role and what kind of astronomer are you?

I am a professor at a university. I teach astronomy to college students, both undergraduate students and graduate students; I help students conduct research. My particular area of interest is the formation of planets and stars. In order to pursue that special area of interest, I study young stars and the material around those newborn and baby stars. I started out as an infrared astronomer and then became a submillimeter astronomer and then an X-ray astronomer. Now, I use whatever data I can lay my hands on that might help me in my work, wherever that data might come from. My most recent projects involve data from an 8-inch visible light telescope called KELT-North and an orbiting X-ray telescope called Swift. I also write books, in my effort to communicate the science of astronomy to the non-professional community.

Interested to read more from Dr. Weintraub? Click on the image and check out his newest book Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?

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