Four young souls. A different era. Lots of unanswered questions.
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It was near end of Kaliyug.
With the demolition of Earth, people begin colonizing the past. The colonization slowly begins to interfere with the timeline. Owing to the fact, four...
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UAE, 2120
"So Pratya, what do you do?" My old friend, who I was meeting after a long time asked. "I'm an astronomer." "No, like what you do...I mean, for all that you have studied isn't that a little...plain?" She said unsure.
Taking a deep breath I replied "I am an astronomer or astrophysicist if I want to sound super smart or theoretical astrophysicist if I really want to take someone down a peg, by trade and now I work as a science communicator".
***
I spend the majority of the day in my office, tapping away at a computer, with the occasional meeting and a couple of tea breaks. Sure, I work on some pretty crazy stuff- like black holes and exploding stars and the distant but inevitable demise of the universe– but my daily routine is pretty much an average 9 to 5.
That is, until I get to go to a telescope.
Not all astronomers get the opportunity to, or want to, go observing. My colleagues more interested in taking a theoretical approach, focusing on creating simulations and models to make sense of what people see.
As for me, I'm more on the observational side of things. My research involves looking for new planets in our galaxy with a telescope called the Next Generation Transit Survey, or NGTS. NGTS detects planets by monitoring the light of thousands of stars and measuring tiny periodic changes in their brightness. If these changes are of the right size, shape, and duration, we can infer that a planet has transited and is blocking some of the star's light. However, it is possible that something else may be mimicking the characteristic signatures of a planet detection, so we need to take follow-up data with other telescopes to confirm our discovery.
***
Despite that, I am like any other young adult. I tossed on my mask on and left the building, my workplace.
The biggest adjustment to life at an observatory is being semi-nocturnal. Most of my days start around eight and end around 6, but not always.
Sometimes my day starts around 1pm, when a hot breakfast is served, but cereal is on-hand 24/7 if I sleep in later. It can be hard to stay focused during a long night at the telescope, so the afternoon is a good time to get on with some work. Sometimes I'll go for a walk and catch some sun; you don't get to see much of it when you're observing! Especially in Dubai with the rising temperatures.
Lunch is a hot meal at about 6pm, when all the astronomers eat together- people come from all over the world to use the telescopes, so I get the opportunity to meet lots of interesting people working on all kinds of cool astronomy.
On the way home I saw an ad for oxygen cylinders.
"An average man is exposed to air without any protection nearly ½ of their lives. Masks are no longer reliable due to the increased number of pollutants in the air. This causes aggravated respiratory disease such as emphysema, bronchitis and asthma, reduced resistance to infections and a lot more! Dump that old mask and get an oxygen cylinder today!" The ad read.
