Summer Visit - 2023 - AGNatha

Quotes

• I was surprised how quickly the group sort of meshed together and got to work. Not to say all the students were best friends by the end of the week, but I was surprised how quickly they were willing to work together and share ideas and contribute to the project. I honestly expected it to be more of the teachers teaching the students and then hopefully when we left everyone would feel confident to continue the work. I think we all picked a great group of students who hit the ground running and understood they were there to work and everyone was as well versed as they could be on the project on day one.
• For me, the uncertainty associated with some of the data was surprising. In a chemistry context, where the researcher has control of the sample the data is much more direct, associating peaks in spectra with structure in the molecules. The idea that we are starting a project with a catalog of AGN, but are only 90% sure that the objects are AGN (R90) surprised me as I usually think of astronomy as much more mathematical and underestimate the differences in how data is collected compared to chemistry.
• [student:] I learned that the type of research that astronomers do is not my forte which is very beneficial because as a rising senior [I need to know what I don't want]
• Real astronomy is developing a question, getting data to help answer that question, adjusting the question based on the data, getting more data, and eventually summarizing your findings in a paper, poster, talk, etc. And acknowledging that there is still probably more to learn about your question. Everything we did felt like part of real astronomy; working as a team, starting with background stuff (what we know about this idea already), using the archive to sift through loads of data, digging really deep into one thing then zooming out to make sure we haven't lost sight of the original question, making mistakes (and luckily catching them before too much time had passed).
• [I was surprised by] The extent to which we have collected so much information that discoveries can be made just through analysis of information that we have had for years. In many cases, [this] is not how I would normally think of research, but this appears to be key in astronomy and other areas of science where the data is there but it takes the right effort to find the connection. This is not how discovery is presented in popular media and in stereotypical representations of science.

Related Teams

• AGNatha/Gorjian