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December 2022 – Interstellar Experiences of NASA Interns [1]
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Date: 2022-12
Growing up in Maine, MaggieBeth Turcotte felt lucky to live near the Acadia National Park and the International Dark Sky sites. Every clear night, she would look up at the different constellations and planets. At a young age, Turcotte had a fascination with astronomy, especially photos that were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Once she realized her passion, she joined the STEM Academy at her high school where she got her first taste of research.
The Pandora Project
MaggieBeth Turcotte is a former NASA intern from NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Turcotte is also a recent student from the University of Maine who studied Earth Sciences and Astronomy. She is currently a transfer student in her 5th year at the Pennsylvania State University where she is studying Astrophysics and Earth Science.
This past summer, Turcotte worked with the Pandora Project in the Earth Science Division. The Pandora Project coordinates and facilitates an expanding global network of standardized, calibrated Pandora instruments that are focused on air quality and atmospheric composition. Specifically, Turcotte characterized spectral differences between co-located Pandora instruments.
She also worked on the precursor science for NASA’s Future Great Observatories. On this project, she helped work on the telescope that is intended to directly observe 25 Earth-like exoplanets. Informally known as “IROUV” (Infrared/Optical/Ultraviolet), this telescope is slated for launch in the 2040s.
Precursor science is scientific investigations that will inform mission architecture and trades with the goal of reducing mission design and development cost, scope, and risk where possible. Turcotte explicitly looked for ways to mitigate the effects of stellar behavior in the search for Earth-sized exoplanets with the Extreme-Precision Radial Velocity (EPRV) method that will eventually be studied in detail by IROUV.
Turcotte’s project is significant because, to directly observe habitable zone Earth-size exoplanets with IROUV, they had to first find these planets using EPRV. Turcotte needed precision of ~1 cm/s over the course of a year which is currently unattainable due to stellar variation and limited observational capabilities.
Women in Astronomy
As Turcotte grew up, she did not really see many women in the astronomy field. In all the things she has read, the majority of the astronomers and astronauts were male. With this mindset, she felt as if she could never get an internship at NASA.
This internship showed Turcotte that anything is possible. After finding her sense of belonging at NASA, she realized that she is incredibly grateful to be doing what she loves. “As someone who was inspired to study astronomy through the images of Hubble, I hope, through my work this summer, I’ve made a fingerprint on a telescope that will inspire the next generation of astronomers,” Turcotte stated.
Visit our website to learn how you can help inspire the next generation like MaggieBeth did this past summer! Also, feel free to learn about other inspirations from Anna Taylor, another former NASA intern who studied the stars and is also grateful to take part in the astrophysics and astronomy field.
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[1] Url:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/interns/2022/12/
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