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15-Year-Old Student Discovers New Pulsar
For the second time in as many years, a student has made a discovery while participating in the Pulsar Search Collaboratory (PSC), a joint program between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and West Virginia University designed to get students and teachers involved in analyzing data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). This time it was high school sophomore Shay Bloxton, who discovered a brand new pulsar. "For Bloxton, the pulsar discovery may be only her first in a scientific career. 'Participating in the PSC has definitely encouraged me to pursue my dream of being an astrophysicist,' she said, adding that she hopes to attend West Virginia University to study astrophysics. Late last year, another West Virginia student, from South Harrison High School, Lucas Bolyard, discovered a pulsar-like object called a rotating radio transient. His discovery also came through participation in the PSC."
I wish I could go back and tell my 15-year-old self not to study astrophysics. After four years of undergrad, me and about 98% of my graduating class realized that our job prospects were virtually nil. I went back for another two years to get my Masters degree, and finally another eight years for my PhD. By this time, I was fat and even less suited for the real world than I was after finishing my undergrad. There weren't any research or tenure-track positions available at the time, but a friend allowed me to work as a cameraman at his pornography production business. Three weeks into the job, one of the male stars blew his load onto my face while I was filming a close-up. I quit, and have since lived in my mother's basement, unemployed. I run errands for her, and she gives me spending cash. I'm 37 and with a PhD, but I live with my mother and I'm treated like I'm still 15.
You're right to some degree. Problem is that we don't have telescopes on Earth that can just point out to the sky and see all the amazing things that Hubble can. The light pollution is too high. So we are really cut back on how much of space we can actually see here.
Now, she didn't "just point" in the sky, in fact, she had nothing to do with the pointing at all. She took the Data and Analyzed it. She worked it out to be a Pulsar.
Pulsars are very rare. So they waited till the telescope came around to the right point again (a month later) and re-read the data, and re-analyzed it with professionals. She was correct.