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Alison Mason

Mrs. Gardner

English 10, Period 4

1 March, 2015

Universal Knowledge

Astronomy is much more than just peering through a telescope to gaze at the stars.

Astronomy is much more than just going to college for 4 years and then jumping straight into the

working field. Astronomy is much more than just looking into the sky to see how old stars are.

The scientific realm is full of mysteries just waiting to be discovered, leaving it full of

possibilities. But I quickly learned that those discoveries come after a long process of education

and experience.

My interest in astronomy and cosmology first sparked after I saw the film, Interstellar,

and I was quickly blown away about what really lied outside of our world. The concept of other

universes, black holes, and the theories of time kept me busy thinking and talking about them for

hours because I wanted to constantly know more and more. Theories and questions of space

became a regular topic for me and I realized that maybe I should learn more about these things. I

quickly latched onto the idea that I could spend my life learning and talking about these sort of

things. I was surprised that you spend all of graduate school doing research and that you often

don’t have to pay for your education since you are working. While I thought that was odd, I also

thought that was really interesting. My grandpa majored in astronomy and was a rocket scientist,

so that made this an even greater idea.

Finding and choosing places to study and work was fairly easy. I chose Dartmouth

because it was a school I had looked at before this assignment and saw it had an excellent

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astronomy program. As for the work locations, Hawaii and England are both places that I would

love to live in and both also offered great places to work. The next thing I did was choose

someone to interview. After Interstellar won an award, the acceptees mentioned Kip Thorne, the

man behind all the astronomy of the film, I knew that he was exactly who I wanted to interview.

I sent him an email, attaching the list of four questions and eagerly waited for a response. A few

days later I opened my email to find a response, and nearly jumped for joy, but was quickly

grounded when I read that the 80 year old man simply had no time to respond but instead

recommended that I look for the answers in his $25 dollar book. Planning ahead for a road bump

like this, I had already emailed an astronomy professor from Dartmouth College, a university

and program that I was interested in, so I awaited Robert Caldwell’s answers. I was very

intrigued when he said that one of the big mysteries of the universe is that the universe is

expanding and that we will never know why. I did enjoy the process of reaching out to people

and learning that there really is no harm in just asking, you can really learn great deal if you put

yourself out there.

While thinking of the interesting future that astronomy holds and the endless mysteries

waiting to be discovered, part of me was and still is hesitant about pursuing a career in

astronomy. I was aware that it would be many years of school but I did not realize I would be

spending all of my twenties enrolled in college sitting in a small, dark room researching. Of

course if it is truly your passion than this is nothing but great news, but for someone who is a

little skeptical of this career this proves to be a little road bump. It's a hard task to decipher

between something you find interesting and something you want to spend the rest of your life

doing. It was helpful to gain more knowledge on a potential career, whether you are researching

one of the everlasting mysteries of the expanding universe or helping on a big screen movie. I’m

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glad I got this opportunity to learn more about astronomy, whether I pick it or not, I’m thankful

for the new information I gained that will help me make the choices for my future.