this video is going to be for those who
are looking to go into something
space-related
but really only focus on the physics
aspects of that space research now if
you want to put things in space like
rockets and satellites and work for
SpaceX or something then obviously
aerospace engineering would be an ideal
choice but like I said before many
engineers and other disciplines work on
spacecraft besides just aerospace
engineers but this video is more for
those looking to go into things like
astronomy or astrophysics as a career
I'll go over some research going on in
the field how to get into this field and
what the job outlook is like first if
you want to work on Space Research the
best two majors are probably astronomy
and astrophysics other majors even like
chemistry can do work in space related
things but again these are two of the
most common but when it comes to
undergrad usually just go into physics
to start out many schools don't even
offer astrophysics or astronomy as an
actual major some do and some will have
maybe a minor in astronomy or something
like that but often you start with just
physics and pick a more specific
discipline in grad school this is also
recommended by many people because
physics covers a broad range of topics
if you decide against space related
stuff then you still a physics degree
which does apply to many jobs but after
your undergrad you need to get a PhD to
become an actual astronomer or
astrophysicist this is pretty much a
fact there really aren't astrophysics or
astronomer jobs for those without PhDs
in 2010 about 91% of people who actually
work in astrophysics had a PhD and most
of the others had a master's so if
you're just about to graduate high
school be ready for nine or ten more
years of school possibly four for
undergrad then five or six for a PhD and
this number is going to be different for
each person them but there's a lot of
work to come however after your four
years at undergrad you will likely get a
stipend and have the school pay for you
to go you won't be developing a nice
savings but you shouldn't be acquiring
tens of thousands of dollars in debt
either now probably the biggest question
everyone asks is is it worth it are
there jobs national physicist or
astronomer and I reached out on various
sites to people with these degrees in a
few who I knew so I can get multiple
answers and here's what I found most
astrophysicists or astronomers just stay
in academia and work at colleges and
universities
these they work as professors but they
also do research as a professor you
could focus more on teaching or more on
research and teach less it just depends
on you and the school but just realize
that many professors aren't just
teaching that's now as the job is all
about like when you hear that MIT
researchers discover the next big thing
that's often grad students and
professors those professors would be the
ones leading the project and that's
where your career could go then
astronomers and astrophysicists can also
work for the government the most famous
organization would be massive but there
are many others including Fermilab CERN
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab JPL or
Jet Propulsion Laboratory the Herzberg
Institute of astrophysics which is
located in Canada and many more if you
look at National Labs you'll find a lot
of them but these are the places where
they're doing things like particle
research or using particle accelerators
and detectors to learn how particles
interact so we can better understand the
fundamental laws of nature or they're
developing computer models to explore
how black holes interact with celestial
bodies so we can learn more about
gravitational waves there's way more of
these places work on but these were just
some examples now the thing is these
jobs are competitive there are more
people pursuing these PhDs than there
are jobs becoming available it's hard to
quantify exactly how difficult it is
because it's not impossible especially
after getting a PhD but getting a
tenured teaching position to do research
or a government position at these labs
is not a guarantee but getting a PhD in
astrophysics or astronomy will teach you
a lot of useful skills which can lead
you into various other career paths
astrophysicists and astronomers who
don't go into their field directly after
a PhD has found jobs at tech companies
like Google and Facebook and software
development because they do have
exposure to computers and programming
they've gotten jobs in finance like
working on Wall Street to these students
have advanced problem-solving skills
they get jobs in the aerospace sector
and even in engineering rules these are
all jobs that actual astrophysicist and
astronomers have talked about getting
these are also jobs that some people
just move on to after some time in the
field because they wanted to change so
even if you can't find a research or
tenured teaching position doing exact
what you want it's very unlikely you'll
become homeless or anything you have
other options out there as a great
example a man named Eamon well Dermot
was a physicist who did great work in
the field of theoretical particle
physics he got a PhD from Columbia in
1973 and worked in the field for about a
decade but later in his career he
started working at Goldman Sachs which
is a finance company he developed the
black German toy model which is used for
pricing of bond options and swaptions so
you see how this had nothing to do with
theoretical particle physics it was an
entirely different field and he is now
known for being a quantitative analyst
who applies math and statistics to
financial problems he had problem
solving skills and was obviously good at
math and when people don't realize this
leads to many different career options
that aren't directly physics related and
I can't say this for sure but I bet
entering school he didn't know that he'd
be going to golden sax within the next
two decades and go back to teaching and
financial engineering at university
which he did so don't limit your career
possibilities this example may not be
what you want to do but it's not so
black and white as to what you can get
into now let's just sum this up before I
talk about research and projects if
you're sitting there saying I'm really
interested in space the universe black
holes galaxies relativity etc and just
want to do research in that field for my
career and you're ready for a lot of
math and hard work then yes go for
physics or maybe astrophysics if it's
offered but just plain physics as an
undergrad is a perfect way to start
begin there and don't worry too much
about ten years from now then be ready
to go into a master's in PhD program to
optimize your success you want to try to
be the best student you can you want to
achieve high grades and you also want to
do research projects trying to find
professors who work in research you find
interesting and try to get on those
projects with them even as an undergrad
this makes you stand out and also it
gives you experience doing research
which is the majority of what you'll be
doing as a PhD student then after
getting your PhD hopefully you can
become a postdoc or post doctoral
researcher this is basically a stage in
your life between PhD student and
professor where you often travel and
just do research almost on your own but
you will have a supervisor you might do
short research projects and go through
multiple postdoc positions while
traveling until you
and a tenured professor job I read of
one student who got his bachelor's in
physics then PhD in astrophysics and is
now a postdoc who does modeling of
galaxies I read of another student who
got the same degrees and is now working
with neutron stars and black holes for
his postdoc this may sound like a lot
but if you have a passion for physics
then you should love this doing a quick
search I found a postdoc job listing as
a gravitational wave researcher at the
West Virginia University Research
Corporation where you develop algorithms
for gravitational wave development which
requires a PhD in physics astronomy or
astrophysics now the pay for postdocs is
typically pretty low maybe between 35 to
45 thousand dollars per year on average
for someone in the United States but it
can be higher like between 60 or 70
thousand a year if you get it at a
National Lab but just really depends
physicists and astronomers have an
average salary of over six figures
according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics but remember it is quite a
process before you get there the better
student you are and the more you stand
out the higher chance you have of
getting that job if you don't land that
professor or research scientist job at a
National Lab be ready to possibly branch
it out to engineering finance software
development etc but you should be able
to find something on the other hand if
you're sitting there saying that you
like physics but you want to get your
four-year degree then enter the
workforce well you can go into physics
but you should also consider looking
into engineering computer science or
something related because that's often
where physics undergraduates end up
because they won't be doing research now
let's move on to some cool examples of
research that is going on in this field
the first thing I want to talk about is
the James Webb Space Telescope whether
you want to be a physicist or engineer
you will probably find it's interesting
the James Webb Space Telescope is a NASA
program but the biggest company working
on it is Northrop Grumman this telescope
is going to be the largest one ever put
into space and at a hundred times more
powerful than the Hubble is the most
powerful telescope out there and it will
be able to see so far into the past that
we will be able to observe the first
galaxies being formed right after the
Big Bang over thirteen point five
billion years ago it's not so much a
replacement for the Hubble telescope but
more of a successor that will allow us
to see further into our universe
and further back in time that we've ever
seen before the Hubble telescope is an
earth orbit right now about 375 miles
from Earth if something goes wrong with
it we can send people to go fix it the
James Webb telescope will be about 1
million miles away from Earth or around
4 times further than the moon so if
anything goes wrong with it its space
junk it's too far for someone to go out
to fix the telescope will also unfold
itself on its way to its destination
orbit the telescope is so sensitive that
needs to be shielded from the light from
the Sun earth and even moon and it will
use a Sun shield to do this that
contains multiple layers and is
equivalent to wearing SPS 1 million so
it's hard to imagine just how perfect
everything has to be now where's the
telescope going to point this is where
the astrophysicists and astronomers and
other scientists come in scientists from
around the world are going to be able to
use this telescope to discover new
things about our universe proposals are
being written by these scientists as to
where the telescope should be aimed at
that will prove most helpful and
insightful and this is going to be
reviewed by independent scientists who
arrange the proposals and the best will
be selected they say this will open up
an entirely new territory of astronomy
and a telescope is set to launch in
October of 2018 as of today and I'm
going to start with dark matter and dark
energy research going on at Stanford in
the next video so if you like this video
don't forget to comment like and
subscribe and I'll see you in part 2
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