How does one become an astronomer?

What is it like in every day life once you’ve finished your studies and managed to get a job as a researcher in this field?

I recently contributed to a short movie by O. Borderie, @tmosphere en images Production.

The film “Astronomy and Space careers” (in English and in French) shows some of us who work in the field describing our “job” as an astronomer, what we do, why we became astronomers and giving some hopefully helpful hints about how to become an astronomer. Researchers, engineers and other people involved in the job of astronomy talk about their work from the inside to allow others to grasp what are the requirements in terms of studies, responsibilities, autonomy and initiatives, functional relations, specificities, environment, etc. You can also get an idea of the evolution of this craft in the future.

You can view a teaser of the film at the production site at:

http://atmosphere.en.images.free.fr/documentaire2.html

It was fun talking about our job and how it affects our lives. We, astronomers, come from different directions, diverse backgrounds, men and women from all over the world and yet we are all linked by our passion for astronomy and a strong motivation to add a small contribution to our understanding of the Universe.

I enjoyed participating in this film, hope you enjoy it too!

We all know by now that Titan is fantastic… But did you know that other wonderful worlds are evolving around the Lord of the Rings (Kronos, Saturn, whatever you want to call the giant planet).

Just a few days ago, my next favorite moon, Enceladus, gave us new cause for wonder. Enormous plumes of water spurt in giant jets out of deep cracks we call “tiger’s stripes” in the South pole of the satellite. Researchers  now provide evidence that the plumes originate in an underground salty ocean.

This is extremely important in the quest of astrobiologists for the origins and evolution pathways that lead to life in our Solar System and elsewhere, because in that, liquid water is essential. So that now we know that liquid water can exist as far as 10 Astronomical Units (10 times the distance of Earth to the Sun). An there are strong suspiciions also that Titan harbors a liquid water ocean also… This is really wonderful news also for our understanding about how the moons in the Solar System are formed and how they have evolved in time.

The Cassini spacecraft flying just a few kms from the surface of Enceladus and plunging through its plumes!

You may want to also see: http://www.saturndaily.com/reports/Salty_Ocean_In_The_Depths_Of_Enceladus_999.html

for more information…

Stay tuned for more amazing discoveries around Saturn and in the meantime you may want to go and see the new movie Startrek and watch closely for something related to our discussions (see also : http://ciclops.org/?js=1). Have you found it? And how do you like the new movie?

You know by now that I’m very interested in hot-air balloons (or Montgolfière as they were called by reference to their inventors, the Montgolfier brothers who lived during the second half of the 18th century in France). I imagined them roaming around Titan, but as said before, we have to wait and see when that happens. As everyone understands these days, money is hard to come by and a study for a Titan Montgolfière would be rather costly… How much? Probably several millions of Euros. But in 1787, King Louis XVI gave a sum of 40000 English livres (or pounds) to M. de Montgolfier as an advance payment for the construction of a new aerostat (as the attached document from the French archives testifies). What would that mean in today’s money I wonder? And could it bring us closer to flying around Titan????

King Louis XV donates 40000 livres in 1787 as a downpayment for the production of a hot-air balloon by the Montgolfier brothers

We have finally recently found out which way things are planned to go for future exploration into the Outer Solar System.

The decision from the two agencies (NASA and ESA) was posted on:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/20090218.html
As an extract:
“National Aeronautics and Space Administration and European Space Agency officials decided to continue pursuing studies of a mission to Jupiter and its four largest moons, and to plan for another potential mission to visit Saturn’s largest moon Titan and Enceladus. ”
and
“The [SSWG] group recommended, and NASA agreed, that both missions should move forward for further study and implementation. ”

“Although the Jupiter system mission has been chosen to proceed to an earlier flight opportunity, a Saturn system mission clearly remains a high priority for the science community.”

So it seems that we may have to wait a little longer to see this mission launched, to plunge through Enceladus’ plumes, to hover over dune fields and to land in a Titan lake. No matter. The first aim of this community is to have the need for a future space mission to the outer planets recognized and transformed into reality. We may be heading for Jupiter first, but as said in the text, and as it has been well demonstrated by the reactions within this community, the public and the press, we shall need to go even further in the future.

For myself, the excitement I have felt during the past 15 months continues. During that time, I have had the immense pleasure and honor to work, exchange ideas and argue with people from all over the world over the most fascinating subject ever: a future mission to return to the Saturnian system to hunt down information on fascinating aspects like Titan’s atmosphere and surface, Enceladus geysers and Saturn’s magnetosphere. Actually, the adventure had  started even earlier for me, when we were preparing the proposal for Tandem within the framework of ESA’s Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 or the study of the 2007 Flagship Titan Explorer mission. With the help and enthusiasm from friends and colleagues and in general from Titan exploration afficionados, I think I’m ready to continue towards the exploration of the Outer Solar System with a first stop at Jupiter and then on to Saturn.

Indeed, NASA and ESA have decided that TSSM studies must continue. We do not know the exact terms for this continuation yet, but we will at least set up communication paths that will allow us to stay in touch and to exchange ideas on future Titan, Enceladus and Saturn System exploration through  web sites for TSSM and products.

I’m looking forward to see how best this future exploration will be implemented in the coming months.

As you can see from my feature article, I am very much involved in the preparation studies for future space exploration of our Solar System . The two major planets, Jupiter and Saturne (Zeus and Kronos for the Greeks…) are the major targets for the coming years. Because we can’t do everything and a space mission costs quite a lot of money (we are talking billions of $US…) one of the two systems will be chosen for a space mission which will launch around 2020 and will arrive around 2029 …!!!

For more details on these studies and the targets, you could read the  articles in 22 January 2009 Nature science magazine…

Titan holiday scene, compliments of the TSSM team!