Chelen Johnson
Cosmic dIRt is examining the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products catalog to find the most unusual and faintest infrared excess objects serendipitously detected by the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Real astronomy is very exciting! I was not expecting to have to solve problems in excel the way we did. We were asked to answer simple questions or develop simple graphs at times but in order to get correct results (as far as we can tell) our team had to parse our skills and play with logic. I remember creating my first SED: I became so excited I could not sit down anymore. Another teacher was so thrilled they raised their hands and yelled in excitement. It was the first time we had results; it was a thrill.
The AAS conference is a factory for knowledge and truth about the Universe. As David Helfand, president of the society said in his opening remarks, “We do astronomy because it defines us as human beings”. I’m just now truly beginning to understand.
Sure, I wrote long papers for my masters', but those papers were to scholarship what engineering math is to actual mathematics - just get through it to do your job. Working with you in NITARP, I saw scholarship as a living community. [..] this experience encouraged me to write for the journal of my profession, but even moreso taught me to reach out to others[..]
