Chelen Johnson
The Dust Mights team will be searching for Galactic sources in the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products catalog which have an excess amount of infrared light and whose distances are known from Gaia observations.
One of the things I love about astronomy is the very fact that we are not laboratory-bound scientists. Our lab is the universe, a constantly changing petri dish in the sky, so to say, and if you aren’t looking, you miss it!
I am gaining in confidence as to my ability to understand, contribute to the study, and the data we will be using.
Being able to be physically present at Caltech and the AAS expanded the impact of this program significantly. It was in these settings, in particular, where one could see how the scientific enterprise typically works and how ideas are often shared.