If I were a scientist, I would be an astrophysicist. Astrophysics is "the branch of astronomy that deals with the physical and chemical processes that occur in stars, galaxies, and interstellar space." (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/astrophysicists) They use a lot of math and they have to rely on good estimation. Since there is so much to discover about space and people can't keep up with all its new discoveries, an astrophysicists job is very challenging. Check out A Day in the Life of an Astrophysicist.
I would want to be an astrophysicist because it involves a lot of math. Math and science have always been easy for me and one of my goals for high school is to discover how I can apply knowledge to the real world. Astrophysicists study physics, or why things interact in space, and this is the type of thing I really like to learn about. I love to ask questions and learn more about these amazing phenomena. Outer space is particularly interesting to me because there is so much to discover, so many questions to ask, and math and science are applied to the real world (or universe).
Since I am a "visual" learner, I would really enjoy just looking at and examining these incredible phenomena. However, an astrophysicist's job is very challenging because it is very hard to accurately measure distances and masses of objects in the universe. People cannot travel to space every day, and there is only a certain distance we can travel. Imagine this: if the Earth were the size of a golf ball, the sun would be a sphere about 15 feet in diameter. The newly discovered star Beetleguese would be six Empire state buildings tall, and there are even bigger stars than that (ChaCha.com - look at Mike's comment)! If the Earth were its normal size, then being able to meaure, let alone travel to these stars would be nearly impossible!
Astrophysicists leave quite a legacy for future generations. The information we know is quite baffling, and there is still more to know about the universe. We will always discover new knowledge about outer space, and this new knowledge really shows us how great and amazing our universe is.
To see what's happening today in the astrophysical world, look at the latest edition of The Astrophysical Journal.
Earth Golf Ball picture from "A Pebble In The Pond" blog.
Planets picture from "Uncommon Sense" journal.
2 comments:
Wow! Good job Kelly! You really went into a lot of detail about your topic. It sounds really neat. I have always been facinated by space but I didn't know that there were feilds other than just astronomy.
You did a really good job! i had heard of astrophysicists before but had no idea what they actually did for their job. You explained their job very well so that i could understand it. I also thought that your facts were very interesting, especially how tiny the Earth is compared to everything else!
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