Expert: Philip A. Stahl - 11/25/2007

Question
QUESTION: I wish to be an astrophysicist. Is it related to daily life? How?

ANSWER: Hello,

First, it is well to recognize that astrophysics is not one uniform discipline but rather a general header for many sub-categories or studies.

For example:

Solar physics

Galactic astrophysics

Stellar astrophysics

Plasma physics and space physics

Nebular astrophysics

Thus, one will choose to specialize in one, and perhaps two (at most) of the above fields.

As for being related to daily life, solar physics is the one most directly related.

When we study the Sun in detail we learn about the occurrence of the solar cycles, and also (especially!) how space "weather" changes with different solar cycles.

Some cycles are much more intense and will unleash more energetic solar proton storms, for example with solar flares associated with complex sunspot groups.

One such storm which occurred in 1989, knocked out the entire Ottawa power grid for days. Large (1") diameter electrical wires were melted by induction currents exceeding one million amps.

Proton flares can also make it impossible to conduct space missions in near Earth orbit, since the radiation flux wil be too large to tolerate.

Some intense flares can knock out the delicate electronics of Earth satellites.

Flares erupting during peak solar cycles can also affect the navigation controls aboard commercial aircraft.

All of these show how solar effects can upset facets of daily life.

These connections are much more difficult to find in stellar astrophysics (where one may focus on stellar evolution, neutron stars or black holes) or galactic astrophysics - where one may focus on the evolution of barred spiral galaxies or the distributions of stars in different galaxy classes (e.g. spiral, elliptical, irregular etc)

So the bottom line is that there are a FEW areas of astrophysics that can be related to daily life. If you are interested in being an astrophysicist, and you demand a relevance to "daily life" - then you have to search out those limited areas, such as solar physics.  Then find universities that specialize in them.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your answer. I am from India. I am interested in astrophysics itself, and I don't demand a relevance to "daily life".
As you said that there are few areas  of astrophysics that can be related to daily life. Then why a democratic government would support astrophysics? Then there would be problem in getting a job. Where do you work for a job?

Answer
Hello again,


You are correct that most governments will not support astrophysics unless: a) they have a large enough budget to accomodate it (like the U.S. or Canada) or b) they can see some hands-on, direct benefit. Most will not see that, so yes it is difficult. (Though I have seen some excellent work published by Indian astrophysicists over the past two decades or so)

So my advice is that if you are interested in pursuing astrophysics, check out all Indian universities to see if they offer such courses, and see what you have to do in order to apply to them. (I am afraid I can't help you with particulars there, as I am only familiar with American universities)

As for working, I am no longer employed in an official capacity, but doing my own research, writing. I am currently working on a solar physics book which focuses on quantitative methods of flare prediction. I expect it to be ready for publication in another few months.

Hopefully this info helps and I wish you the best of luck!