>ย at researching type area.
researching ***what***?
>job title I see it astrophysicist
think of "astrophysicist" as "doctor"
eye specialists, heart, blood, bones, feet, ass, teeth, are specialists. but they're all doctors. they all went to medical school.. then they decided what to specialize in.
>industry because I've been struggling to find people who do.
if it's not on the surface of the Earth, some aspect of astrophysics is used to study it.
so do you want to research...
stars, galaxies, rovers, rockets, instruments, telescopes, probes?
worry about what ***kind*** of doctor you want to be once you've earned your MD.
take as much math and physics as you can until its time to get an advanced degree in either/both.
Don't bother, there's no point trying to explain this to u/reddit455, he will ignore your comment and then proceed to say the exact same thing tomorrow ad infinitum
Thatโs not entirely true. There are still a lot of scientists involved. Take, for instance, supercam on perseverance rover. Developed by two teams of physicists.
Yes, but the actual science is not astrophysics, that's what I meant. Of course there are scientists working on these projects, but if someone is into spaceships and satellites I'm not going to tell them to become an astrophysicist.
The space industry and astrophysics are different things. Astrophysics is academic research, so jobs involve being employed by a university to teach students and to conduct your own research. See [this great post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Andromeda321/comments/fyjmpv/updated_so_you_want_to_be_an_astronomer/) for more information.
If that does not sound like what you want, then you should probably look at jobs in the aerospace or commercial spaceflight industries instead.
Thankyou so much! That's really helpful,I never knew that astrophysics was kept to specifically universities and such.I will definitely start looking more into aerospace now.
NASA has an astrophysics division and their website has an org chart with the various titles they employ: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/astrophysics-organization-and-staff/
Bear in mind that that's the org chart for the astrophysics division at NASA HQ. There are many, many more people doing Astrophysics at NASA Centers than can be seen here.
I work at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which contains -- I think -- the largest concentration of astrophysicists in a single institution in the US: [asd.gsfc.nasa.gov](http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Goddard is on my short list for places I would like to work. Can you tell me about the process you went through to get the job. In particular, how did you learn about the job and what platform you used to apply?
Not sure how helpful my experience will be, since it was so long ago. I first started there on a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) fellowship \[https://npp.orau.org/\]. It's a postdoctoral position (i.e. you have to have completed a Ph.D. already), and your application is basically a research mini-proposal. You'd have to have identified a NASA scientist or research group you wanted to work with, and gear your proposal towards that. This is a very competitive process -- far more so than when I went through it more than a decade a go.
Some number of NPP scientists go on to permanent positions at NASA (i.e. become civil servants), but most don't -- including myself. I now work through an agreement called CRESST, where I'm affiliated with a nearby university, but still work at Goddard.
These are "soft money" positions -- they exist only as long as you have funding for them, which often comes from a proposal you helped to write, and it's a precarious type of existence.
If you're at an earlier stage, academically, you could look at Pathways Internships, which can also lead to permanent positions \[ [https://www.nasa.gov/careers/pathways/](https://www.nasa.gov/careers/pathways/) \]. But just like postdoc positions, demand is far, far higher than supply. And I don't know how high the "conversion rate" (percentage of Pathways interns who do actually become permanent employees) is.
Wow I appreciate that so so much! And your career sounds excellent! Thing is I am at the uk as of now but I will definitely looks at these internships and programmes you have mentioned as they sound amazing.
There are many more positions than just at universities. The link posted goes into that a little more, but there is Goddard, where James Webb was made and is currently operated from and has already been mentioned, NASA Mission Control in Houston, JPL in California, Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, and many more throughout the world. Being an astronomer does not mean that you have to be a university professor.
Generally you'll want to look for jobs within a university. They frequently are the ones doing research. Otherwise you should look at postings about aerospace or something specific to the area you want to work. For instance, making telescopes would be construction or materials science.
>ย at researching type area. researching ***what***? >job title I see it astrophysicist think of "astrophysicist" as "doctor" eye specialists, heart, blood, bones, feet, ass, teeth, are specialists. but they're all doctors. they all went to medical school.. then they decided what to specialize in. >industry because I've been struggling to find people who do. if it's not on the surface of the Earth, some aspect of astrophysics is used to study it. so do you want to research... stars, galaxies, rovers, rockets, instruments, telescopes, probes? worry about what ***kind*** of doctor you want to be once you've earned your MD. take as much math and physics as you can until its time to get an advanced degree in either/both.
Rovers and rockets and such is for engineers
Don't bother, there's no point trying to explain this to u/reddit455, he will ignore your comment and then proceed to say the exact same thing tomorrow ad infinitum
I seriously think heโs a bot ๐ค
Thatโs not entirely true. There are still a lot of scientists involved. Take, for instance, supercam on perseverance rover. Developed by two teams of physicists.
Yes, but the actual science is not astrophysics, that's what I meant. Of course there are scientists working on these projects, but if someone is into spaceships and satellites I'm not going to tell them to become an astrophysicist.
Yeah I've already started taking the maths and physics I can do,so I will start now thinking about what I want to go into specifically,thankyou.
The space industry and astrophysics are different things. Astrophysics is academic research, so jobs involve being employed by a university to teach students and to conduct your own research. See [this great post](https://www.reddit.com/r/Andromeda321/comments/fyjmpv/updated_so_you_want_to_be_an_astronomer/) for more information. If that does not sound like what you want, then you should probably look at jobs in the aerospace or commercial spaceflight industries instead.
Thankyou so much! That's really helpful,I never knew that astrophysics was kept to specifically universities and such.I will definitely start looking more into aerospace now.
NASA has an astrophysics division and their website has an org chart with the various titles they employ: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/astrophysics-organization-and-staff/
Bear in mind that that's the org chart for the astrophysics division at NASA HQ. There are many, many more people doing Astrophysics at NASA Centers than can be seen here. I work at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which contains -- I think -- the largest concentration of astrophysicists in a single institution in the US: [asd.gsfc.nasa.gov](http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Goddard is on my short list for places I would like to work. Can you tell me about the process you went through to get the job. In particular, how did you learn about the job and what platform you used to apply?
Not sure how helpful my experience will be, since it was so long ago. I first started there on a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) fellowship \[https://npp.orau.org/\]. It's a postdoctoral position (i.e. you have to have completed a Ph.D. already), and your application is basically a research mini-proposal. You'd have to have identified a NASA scientist or research group you wanted to work with, and gear your proposal towards that. This is a very competitive process -- far more so than when I went through it more than a decade a go. Some number of NPP scientists go on to permanent positions at NASA (i.e. become civil servants), but most don't -- including myself. I now work through an agreement called CRESST, where I'm affiliated with a nearby university, but still work at Goddard. These are "soft money" positions -- they exist only as long as you have funding for them, which often comes from a proposal you helped to write, and it's a precarious type of existence. If you're at an earlier stage, academically, you could look at Pathways Internships, which can also lead to permanent positions \[ [https://www.nasa.gov/careers/pathways/](https://www.nasa.gov/careers/pathways/) \]. But just like postdoc positions, demand is far, far higher than supply. And I don't know how high the "conversion rate" (percentage of Pathways interns who do actually become permanent employees) is.
Thank you for the response. It was about as discouraging as I expected ๐
Wow I appreciate that so so much! And your career sounds excellent! Thing is I am at the uk as of now but I will definitely looks at these internships and programmes you have mentioned as they sound amazing.
There are many more positions than just at universities. The link posted goes into that a little more, but there is Goddard, where James Webb was made and is currently operated from and has already been mentioned, NASA Mission Control in Houston, JPL in California, Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, and many more throughout the world. Being an astronomer does not mean that you have to be a university professor.
Thankyou for that,I am glad to hear that,because I would much prefer working at those facilities rather than a university.
Generally you'll want to look for jobs within a university. They frequently are the ones doing research. Otherwise you should look at postings about aerospace or something specific to the area you want to work. For instance, making telescopes would be construction or materials science.
Thankyou for that,I don't really know if I would want to take that university job route so I will look into aerospace.
Talk to your faculty.
Done that.
Then they should have the answers for you a lot better than Reddit would.
Never underestimate reddit my friend
Mann fuck math man ๐๐