SCIENCE
Reaching for the Stars
Business is looking up in astronomy, a career that is more like a calling
KOYAl (iREENWKtl OltsKHV ATi»H^ »*M«rT«» HESfARt HKK.H
Computer-colored: Halley 's comet
Eric Feigelson has just tapped a few
keys on the customized "imaging"
computer at Penn State's astron
omy department At his touch, an
eerily beautiful plume spreads
along the screen It isa portrait of a galaxy,
but one that cannot be seen through your
average telescope It is a depiction of the
radio waves that the galaxy emits—"cos
mic jets” that spew out of a black hole like
water from a fire host* Feigelson, a 33-year
old associate professor of formidable en
thusiasm, collected his data using the Very
Large Array, a massive set of 10-story dish
antennas in New Mexico; a million-line
program crunches the numbers. He is not
only in love with these highest-tech toys
but thrilled by the excitement of the puz
zles that lie beyond "Tight, fabulous re
sults plop into your lap," he exults, "and
you’re awed not by your skills but by na
ture’s richness to give us these phenomena
that we don’t understand."
They labor on one of the last romantic
frontiers, these modern practitioners of
an ancient science. Astronomy offers
scholurs the rare opportunity to do pure
research, with the universe for a laborato
ry. Often arduous and arcane, the field
attracts brilliant and sometimes eccentric
minds that can apply the physics lessons
of subatomic particles to vast objects light
years away. For many, astronomy is more
a calling than a career. They have been
stargazing since childhood, and their fas
cination remains undimmed by adult
hood. Feigelson, for one, rhapsodizes that
the development of the theory of stellar
evolution (which describes the life cycle of
starsi is an achievement "right up there
with Shakespeare, or something—and it
might even be right.”
Astronomy divides itself into two con
centrations. Observational astronomers
collect information by scanning the skies;
science has expanded their range of snoop
ing well beyond what the old lens or mirror
telescopes can see, into the realm of radio
waves and high-energy radiation. Theoret
ical astronomers often interpret the obser
vations of their peers, using complex math
emat ical models to decide what’s out there.
Pinhole cameras: Whichever form they
practice, about 60 percent of astronomers
wind up working in university surround
ings. Professorial pay is good, though not
lavish: average salaries run from $20,000to
more than $50,000 for prestigious posts.
The fringes can be fun: frequent travels
around the country and the world to attend
conferences or visit observatories in exotic
locales. As faculty, they energetically teach
bread-and-butter introductory courses and
Heavenly bodies: (teorgia State s John Wilson (pointing) uses a telescope to project the image of the October 1986solar eclipse