When Graduate School Isn’t in the Immediate Future

When Graduate School Isn’t in the Immediate Future

Many believe that if you care about astronomy there are few other options besides graduate school and ultimately academia. My hope for this post is to unseat that misconception and maybe alleviate some of the pain that comes with choosing an alternate course. Here, I focus on job opportunities that are available right after college. Some are stepping stones into graduate school while others are careers in themselves. I’ve talked extensively with people in each field, all of whom entered with only a bachelor’s degree and found themselves in a job they loved. In the end, there are more options than you might think!

Detecting Exoplanet Atmospheres From the Ground

Detecting Exoplanet Atmospheres From the Ground

The field of exoplanet research is rapidly expanding. Presented here are the results from a recent ground-based study of an exoplanet’s atmosphere. We have characterized the atmospheres of less than ten exoplanets. By opening up the frontier for ground-based telescopes to do such ground-breaking research we will be able to characterize the atmospheres of hundreds of exoplanets.

Massive and Passive Galaxies due to Early Quasar Driven Outflows

Massive and Passive Galaxies due to Early Quasar Driven Outflows

In the nearby Universe, massive galaxies contain very little interstellar gas and old stellar populations. But theoretical models predict that such galaxies should have much younger stellar populations. In order to solve this discrepancy models invoke quasar outflows in the early Universe. Such outflows would expel the gas from a galaxy and quench star formation. Presented here are the results from the first massive quasar outflow observer at z ~ 6.4189.

Two ‘b’s in the Beehive

Two ‘b’s in the Beehive

Presented here are the results from a recent survey of the Beehive cluster where two hot Jupiter planets were discovered. These are the first hot Jupiters to be discovered in an open cluster. Not only does this discovery prove that exoplanets do in fact exist in open clusters, but future studies will help provide more precise measurements of exoplanet characteristics.