What kind of work does an astrophysicist do?

[TheShapeOfTime]

What kind of work does an astrophysicist do?

 

[cronxeh]

Why do people never bother to google anything?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysics

 

[misskitty]

Believe it or not, there are some people who can not perform an internet search to save their souls! You're talking to one.

Andromeda would be a good person to ask. That's her current college major. Briefly, and if I'm lucky Andromeda will expand/or correct me if I'm wrong, astrophysicists are physicists who study the universe, how it works, what is happening right now, and lots of other interesting subjects.

 

[Andromeda321]

Misskitty's got it about right. There's no "official" definition and anyone who deals in astronomy stuff at all nowadays could probably get away with calling themselves one. The term usually is used in referring to people who are most arguably physicists who happen to do reseach relating to astronomy (such as someone actually in a physics department who works with dark energy).

 

[cronxeh]

An interesting observation:

from an infinite distance away, the Earth seems like a point, so studying the cosmos from a single point is tricky - consider a point on a plane, and try looking through it and determine the shape and size of things far away. In essence, even if we are moving and have a somewhat stereo view through special techniques, it is still like looking through a point

 

[matt.o]

i am working on my PhD in astrophysics. What I basically do each day is reduce and interpret observational data. In the future I hope to add some simulations and theoretical studies to help with the interpretation.

 

[SpaceTiger]

What kind of work does an astrophysicist do?

http://https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=66810 is worth a look. I'm probably more theoretically-oriented than matt.o is, but in either case, most of the day is spent on a computer.

 

[misskitty]

An interesting observation:

from an infinite distance away, the Earth seems like a point, so studying the cosmos from a single point is tricky - consider a point on a plane, and try looking through it and determine the shape and size of things far away. In essence, even if we are moving and have a somewhat stereo view through special techniques, it is still like looking through a point

Never thought of it like that...Excellent perspective Cronxeh.

 

[matt.o]

yes, SpaceTiger you have been working on your 'grad studies' longer than myself. the theory will come for me yet! i have to agree, 90-95% of my day is spent on a computer, possible 5-10% reading papers (or more precisely, physicsforums.com!).

 

[A_I_]

ok, interesting topic.
i have another question:
since I'm going to college the coming fall,
what is mostly required to enter this field?
other than high grades on maths and physics.
Are there any intellectual considerations?

Joe

 

[cronxeh]

"desire, discipline, and dedication" and lots of curiosity and open mind

 

[Andromeda321]

I'd vote for some computer science, a dab of chemistry, mixed in with a lot of work ethic and enthusiasm.

 

[matt.o]

Yes! Learn computer programming!

 

[A_I_]

wow.. i didn't know that we should have knowledge in computer programming.. that's extremely cool.. well, but for what use? can anyone please explain?
about desire and dedication.. i don't just have those.. i have also an infinite passion and i guess what led me to choose such a major is my love for "mysteries" for i think that our Universe is the biggest mystery ever known and well the everlasting mystery

 

[SpaceTiger]

wow.. i didn't know that we should have knowledge in computer programming.. that's extremely cool.. well, but for what use? can anyone please explain?

Oh goodness yes. In my opinion, it's getting to the point where an astronomer who can't program is about as bad as one who can't do math! Whether I'm doing observational or theoretical work, I spend most of the time running codes of one sort or another, whether it's simulations of physical systems, handling of large data sets, or simple file manipulation scripts. My advice is to learn no less than two computer languages, one low-level one for numerical simulations and one high-level one for simple data and file-handling tasks. My languages of choice are Fortran and Perl, but I also know bits of C, C++, Supermongo, IDL, bash shell, Tcl/Tk, PHP, and Pascal. In addition, it's good to be familiar with Mathematica (or an equivalent) and Latex (this forum is a good place to practice).

Another thing that I found was lacking from my undergraduate astronomy education was statistics, so see if you can study up on that. In particular, study distribution functions and error-finding techniques.

 

[jtbell]

wow.. i didn't know that we should have knowledge in computer programming.. that's extremely cool.. well, but for what use? can anyone please explain?

It's not just for astrophysicists, but for most all physicists. In many fields, experimentalists spend a lot of time writing software to acquire, analyze and manage their data. I was in experimental high-energy particle physics in grad school, and that's what I spent most of my time doing. Theoretical physicists often use computer simulations, or generate their results numerically. Lots of equations for interesting systems can be solved only numerically, not algebraically.

Programming can also come in handy for finding a job, or as a fallback option in case you decide you don't really want a career in "pure physics" after all. That's sort of the way it turned out for me. When I finished grad school, I decided I wanted a teaching-oriented position rather than a research-oriented one. I got the position I'm in now because the college wanted someone who could teach some computer science in addition to physics.

 

[A_I_]

my friend is in programming, i asked him about the languages suggested.
He told me that some are for webdesign and webscripting like php, i still didn't understand clearly the main use of programming.
Can anyone give me a specific example?

 

[Andromeda321]

Example: the professor I'm working with this summer does a lot of his research in modelling how galaxies collide. A large part of his research involves running computer simulations on supercomputers to see if his theories are true in this regard (for example, modelling what happens if a small galaxy goes near a large one and such). There aren't really any programs out there for this, so he writes his own.
Does that help?

 

[Shoe]

What kind of work does an astrophysicist do?

Consultant work for Star Trek.

 

[SpaceTiger]

my friend is in programming, i asked him about the languages suggested.
He told me that some are for webdesign and webscripting like php

You certainly don't need to know all of the languages I listed, I was only giving you a taste for the level of exposure to programming you'll get.

 

[A_I_]

so you mean, that these languages will be among the obligatory courses which i will take in this major. right?

 

[SpaceTiger]

so you mean, that these languages will be among the obligatory courses which i will take in this major. right?

Oh no, absolutely not, you'll likely only need to learn one or two languages for your courses. These are just the languages that I found useful in my studies or had to work with in my research. Once you've learned one, though, the others usually aren't too hard.

 

[A_I_]

but what i meant is that a computer language is given among the obligatory courses?

 

[Andromeda321]

Depends on the school, but most nowadays require one computer programming class in order to graduate.

 

[cronxeh]

I'd just stick with assembler, Visual C++, and MatLab. Also knowing AutoCAD if you are an engineer would be required.

 

[franznietzsche]

wow.. i didn't know that we should have knowledge in computer programming.. that's extremely cool.. well, but for what use? can anyone please explain?

For everything theoretical. A Professor and I are currently collaborating with a physicist at Los Alamos on a stellar evolution code, studying stellar structure. I've been working on my own program to model stellar energy transport since october. At Lawrence Berkely they have the Djehuty code, which is a full 3-dimensional simulation of a star, used to study supernovae.

Another thing to note is that astrophysicists have to be experts in just about every field of physics, because the systems they study are just about the most complicated in the universe. Most physicists, especially experimentalists study stripped down systems looking at a single phenomenon. Astrophysicists have to deal with huge systems where everything is going on all at once.

 

[franznietzsche]

I'd just stick with assembler, Visual C++, and MatLab. Also knowing AutoCAD if you are an engineer would be required.

No. No, no, no.

There are so many reasons no.

Fortran is the must have language for astrophysicists. Fortran 90 especially, but 77 is good to be familiar with for dealing with legacy code, and 95 and 2003 are the newer standards.

All the collaboration we've been doing with the national labs has involved Fortran exclusively.

Fortran is considerably faster than most other languages. It is easier to use. It is specifically designed for running numerical simulations where speed is the top consideration.

Further, you want a language that can be compiled and run on large UNIX clusters, or even Macintosh G5 clusters, and Visual C++ is not that. Fortran is easier to write for parallel processing as well, again, it is designed for making very fast numerical simulations. C++ is not. Fortran is easier to learn and use.

See this link

 

[matt.o]

yep, just about all i use is fortran!

 

[A_I_]

wow,thanksguys for the informatin u have given to me
i really appreciate it.
now i have a complete view on what uhave meant :)
Joe

 

[da615]

I think that a personal reply is in order. (Googling a topic will not provide a personal angle, which may be important to someone possibly looking into entering the field.)

Graduates who go into Astrophysics choose to specialize in either the observational or the theoretical aspect of the field. Those who choose the former option need some basic core courses in Physics (EM, QM, CM and Math methods) as well as Atomic Physics and a pretty sound knowledge of computer programming e.g. IDL. A lot of observational Astrophysics is applied Atomic Physics. Many people go into it thinking that you'll be looking at cool Astro photographs a lot. Nothing can be further from the truth. You'll spend endless hours reducing spectral data. These kinds of Astrophysicists spend most of their time quibbling about various optimal filtering techniques , etc. to spot whatever they are after.

In case you are more interested in the theoretical aspect, you need to be VERY good at Math. You need a thorough knowledge of Differential Geometry, for example. Many theorists focus on solving complicated fluid dynamical equations with Magnetohydrodynamics/ Plasma Physics also thrown in. If you want to work on General Relativistic applications you obviously have to have a good background in GR. These types of Astrophysicists need more advanced Physics classes than the ones who focus on taking and interpreting observational data.