As a prerequisite, sorry if this post seems boring in comparison to some others. I write in a very dry way but I promise I have feelings.
Although the days at SSP tend to blur together and time feels a little fake, each one involves some memorable moments. Unlike many of my peers, I start my morning with breakfast every day. Today, I went to the dining hall at around 8:20 and had some oats with yogurt and fruit (gluten-free of course) paired with an overwhelmingly large mug of coffee. The coffee, as many of us have discovered in the last three weeks, is a necessary piece of the SSP survival puzzle.
The morning lecture consisted of Pink Floyd, fire, and abnormally large telescopes. I personally love both the Dark Side of the Moon and lighting things on fire, so I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. D’s optics lecture.
After a scrumptious, delectable, mouth-watering, serotonin-inducing lunch from C4C’s famous make-your-own-(lentil)-pasta bar, I went back to my room for a nap before our guest speaker talk.
The guest speaker, Dr. Kevin Hardegree-Ullman from the University of Arizona, gave an engaging and fascinating talk about exoplanet discovery. He dove into both direct and indirect detection methods, most notably the use of the transit method to discover new exoplanets. He also discussed star type and size. He had us do a lot of the required math ourselves, including measuring his scale models. I find it cool that it’s a field abundant with future missions and information yet to be known. I linked the exoplanet archive below if anyone is interested in searching.
The remainder of my day was relatively uneventful. I took yet another nap and a shower before dinner, had a spectacular time with Laura and the rest of my table discussing Southpark episodes and quantum computing, then went to Pset for the next four hours or so, give or take a few.
I always end my night with some form of ping pong that typically results in an injury, followed by some reading with dad rock in the background. That was my day in a nutshell, and thanks for reading.
https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/
Hey, I’m Cassidy. I live in New Jersey, around 10 minutes from the shore. I love my dog, the New York Jets, Mac Demarco, and some other things but mostly those three. So far at SSP I’ve been hit in the eye by a ping pong paddle and have eaten every Reese’s in the vending machine. My current mission is to understand what I mean in my code, but the second I get home my life goals will be to try not to get sunburnt and eat as much soft serve as humanly possible. I want to study physics in some capacity in the future, whether that be through engineering or astrophysics.
