• Question: Do any of you have tips for upcoming astrophysicists?

    Asked by Forehead to Kevin, Liz, Beccy on 22 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      Work hard. I don’t know specifically but I’m sure maths will be important alongside your physics. Read lots – ask questions. Can you visit a big telescope or a planetarium? Keep an eye on other zones in I’m a scientist. They might have an astrophysics one and even if your teacher doesn’t sign up for a chat, you can read how the scientists answer the posted questions.

      Enjoy – it sounds exciting!

    • Photo: Liz Buckingham-Jeffery

      Liz Buckingham-Jeffery answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      Obviously, you need to keep going to school and do well in maths and physics classes! Within astrophysics there are many different jobs you can get, so perhaps see if you can contact someone to arrange work experience or something to get more of an idea of what jobs are possible? But I know it is sometimes tricky to find good work experience placements.

      Outside of school, there are a few things interesting things I can suggest you to that may enjoy:

      Exocast is a podcast about about exoplanets (made by one of my friends, Hugh): http://www.exocast.org/

      Zooniverse is an amazing website! When scientists have a lot of data that all needs looking at, they can put it on zooniverse and anyone can help. You can start contributing to active research projects already! There are often many astro related projects on there. For example, this recent one about baby galaxies: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/hughdickinson/galaxy-nurseries

      TED talks are interesting (in general, not just for science). For example, you might enjoy this one:

      And if not, there are many more astronomy and physics related talks so hopefully you’ll like one of them! https://www.ted.com/talks?topics%5B%5D=astronomy

      I hope that was helpful!

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