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Summer Visit - 2014 - SIRXS

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The SIRXS team came to visit in July 2014. The core team educators attended, plus 11 students.

 

Quotes

  • [student:] Real astronomy is the study of the universe. We did a lot of computer work and this didn’t match up with my expectation of scientific research. This type of research is very technical and I realized how the use of computers is invaluable.
  • [student:] It surprised me that so much astronomical data was available to the public. I was even more surprised by the fact that this was not just a little data, but it was so much that one would not be able to go through it all in a whole lifetime.
  • [student:] The best part [of the trip] was seeing how the project changed so much over just a few days. Although our end goal was the same, our process to reach that goal was changed in those few days. From things as simple as just finding new ways to cut down the source count from the SEIP to things as radical as finding a brand new program online to sort the data, the project was constantly evolving.
  • [student:] Yes, I was under the impression that astronomy wasn’t a difficult scientific field to study and that astronomy deals mainly with planets. But now, I can see that there is so much more to astronomy than just planets. There are a lot of unknowns and to study astronomy you need a strong and talented brain. You also need patience, focus, and passion for it.
  • [student:] I think that curiosity is a important characteristic for a astronomer.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2014 - SIRXS