Chelen Johnson
Detecting Brown Dwarfs in Interacting Cataclysmic Binaries: Using Spitzer Space Telescope infrared images to determine whether the companion of the remnant star EE Eri (a white dwarf) is in fact a very low-mass object (sometimes called 'failed star') known as a brown dwarf.
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.
The process of gathering and analyzing data was very important to help show my kids what real research is like. And since our data didn't come out nice and neat like some labs do, it really helped push my kids to think outside the box.
I’ve always thought that probably most astronomers were just normal people who had a passion for astronomy, and my experience confirmed that. I felt like many of the astronomers I talked to were able to have normal conversations as well as “wow” me with lots of data and analysis.
