by Rabeea Ahmed

What thirty minutes with Dr. Adam Riess Taught Me:

This week, I was fortunate enough to be given the chance to speak with Dr. Adam Riess on his work and research experiences. Dr. Riess won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for “the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae”[1] I came upon this opportunity by chance – it just so happened that Dr. Riess works at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) [1] ,where I was interning this summer, and was kind enough to agree to meeting with me to share his thoughts on research.

During my meeting with Dr. Reiss, I had the chance to exchange great information about scientific research, the challenges of the field and his method of research. I will summarize some of the things I learned from his company in this blog.

1. “Asking Too Many Questions Is Good”

by Rabeea Ahmed

For the past month or so, I have been testing the Hubble Legacy Archive to see if it is fulfilling its job requirement of putting great scientific data out for scientists to study. One of the aspects of this was to look at stars where the energy output per unit area per unit time (i.e. flux) changes between different observations. Normally, the flux is relatively constant and stars burn at the same brightness and flux level over a short time-period spanning months and years.

When data of possible ‘variable flux’ stars are outputted by computer, it is my job to sift through to make sure that the observed variation are actually real and not caused by systematic errors in the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope or other programming-related problems.

by Rabeea Ahmed

My internship at the Space Telescope Science Institute has been an amazing learning opportunity on many different levels. Of course, there is the obvious learning involved in working on data quality assessment, but there are subtle lessons learned that I believe truly enrich the internship experience. I will try and summarize them:

1. The Scientific Method
I still recall learning about the scientific method in a 6th grade science class in Pakistan. Back then, it seemed like a fairly simple and obvious method of testing theories and explaining phenomenon. At my internship, I learned how the scientific method could be applied to data quality assessment and I did so by observing my mentor and advisor Dr. Brad Whitmore at work.

While looking for solutions to problems found in the data sets I was working on, Dr. Whitmore would always make a prediction, state and write it down clearly, before looking at the data-set to check its validity. This physical statement of the hypothesis before the test was something I had not given much thought until I observed the importance Dr. Whitmore gave to it. I later realized that this habit allowed one to seriously ponder over the problem and think deeply about its causes without falling into the danger of coming up with any theory to explain the said problem.

by Rabeea Ahmed

To  many, many people that I know, summer time is about exploring new things. For most of the people I know, this means traveling to exotic parts of the world, going on city tours and immersing themselves in the sights and sounds of where they live. Although I grew up in the relatively tiny city of Islamabad, Pakistan, my spirit of adventure – at least when it comes to exploring new areas - is actually quite subdued.

I could blame the summer heat for my aversion to exploring my city but that would be untrue. The fact of the matter is that I just really like staying at home in general – where I enjoy cooking.

by Rabeea Ahmed

Recently I had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Janice Lee – an astronomer at the STScI (Space
Telescope Science Institute) – about her ventures into astronomy and why she chose a career in science. Most of our discussion was based on her journey into astronomy.

The most important aspect of the discussion was Janice's emphasis on exploring different career paths before settling down with one. I found this quite similar to my undergraduate exploration of courses because I studied a very wide selection of courses and participated in a plethora of
different activities until I finally realized that my ultimate fascination was with astrophysics and computer science.

by Rabeea Ahmed

Every morning, when I enter the Space Science Institute (STScI) to begin my work for the day, breath-taking pictures of space that line the walls of the lobby greet me. Although I have walked through the lobby every day for over three weeks, the one-tenth-scale replica of the Hubble Space Telescope that hangs on the ceiling of the lobby always catches my attention. It infuses within me the thrill of being a part of an expedition that ventures into the haunting depths of space to learn more about our universe and our place in it.

Most mornings at the STScI begin with a talk scheduled for student interns to learn more about the great work that takes place at the STScI. Dr. Alberto Conti, who is currently an Innovation Scientist for the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), delivered today’s talk, entitled “A New Kind of Astronomy”. As a computer science and astronomy student, the title of the talk piqued my interest. I was curious to know what new things were at the frontier of astrophysics today and what the future was like for the field. Indeed, the focus of the talk was

By Rabeea Ahmed

cosmos for  decades to come. However, the catalogs that astronomers currently use to gather this data are not very user-friendly, and so much of the time spent during research in astronomy today is invested in data-collection and refining. The Hubble Legacy Archive (HLA) project seeks to reduce this time frame by providing scientists a quick and easy “one-stop-shop” for all their data needs. In short, my job this summer is to work with a team of scientists, programmers, and researchers in helping the scientific work on the Hubble data to occur faster by providing great research-quality data to the general astronomer audience in a fast and efficient way. This way, we hope to allow scientists to invest more time in uncovering the wonderful physical laws hidden behind the array of numbers.