An artist’s concept of a galaxy with a brilliant quasar at its center. A quasar is a very bright, distant and active supermassive black hole that is millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun. Among the brightest objects in the universe, a quasar’s light outshines that of all the stars in its host galaxy combined. Quasars feed on infalling matter and unleash torrents of winds and radiation, shaping the galaxies in which they reside. Using the unique capabilities of Webb, scientists like Kirsten Hall, canstudy six of the most distant and luminous quasars in the universe.Credit: NASA, ESA and J. Olmsted (STScI)
To many, Kirsten Hall'sjourney from rural Pennsylvania to Cambridge, Massachusetts, might seem unlikely. Kirstengrew up in an area where many people did not attendcollege, and that included her own parents. But the skies there were dark, and Kirsten spent evenings observing constellations with her mother, inspiring her to envision a different kind of life. Eventually, Kirsten developed a career at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, where she observes celestial objects much larger and more mysterious than stars.
"I didn't know what I was doing," she said as she discussed enrolling at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a first-generation college student. "I didn't have context for what it meant to have a college degree and how many career opportunities it would open up.”
Kirsten’s freshman year, she did not have any clear goal in mind of what to study, but her childhood watching the night sky gave her an idea: "I took an astronomy 101 course on a whim, thinking 'that sounds fun.' Even though I enjoyed observing the night sky as a kid, and I didn't know you could study the sky as a career. To me, it was just pretty pictures," she told Eye on Science.
Kirsten lucked out. The course happened to be taught by that professor. Do you have that teacher you still remember from your school days because they just made a difference in your life? Yes, that kind of professor. "He did a great job introducing the subject. I applied to [his] program for undergraduates who are particularly interested in astronomy to learn what astronomers do and what it means to have a career in astrophysics. I was sold from that point on,” Kirsten said.
When it came to attending graduate school, Kirsten still had a lot of questions. “My only reference to having a doctorate degree was being a medical doctor,” she said. “I asked a lot of questions of a lot of people, and I really put myself out there in a way that a lot of people in my field don’t have to do because they already have the context [of growing up around college graduates]. I asked a lot of those ‘stupid’ questions. My stubbornness and resilience allowed me to persist and persevere because, especially, I wasn't always met with encouragement. Once you're ‘behind’ from a traditional path, it can be really challenging to put your best foot forward.”
Despite her early challenges, Kirsten’s interest in astronomy turned into a career where she now uses data collected from telescopes to study the origins of the universe.
“I am a firm believer that anyone can do it; it's just about opening doors for people. As I have learned more and more and progressed more and more in my career, I am lucky to have a unique perspective on how to open those doors for other people. It really shapes not just the scientist I am but who I am as a person.”
As a person, Kirsten doesn’t let her passion for astronomy take away from her deep concern for the well-being of those of us who live on Earth. “When we were studying planets in my astronomy 101 class, the professor intentionally highlighted the Earth and climate change, and he presented the science around that. It was the first time climate change was presented to me so scientifically and matter of fact.” After grad school, Kirsten entered a fellowship program where she learned how to apply her skills to solving grand challenges here on Earth, such as climate change and world hunger. This fellowship helped her understand the uniqueness and value of our little planet.
“I think it is remarkable to be a human on a planet hurling through space within the larger context that I have in understanding the vast structure of the universe."
“It’s remarkable to try to zoom out and place ourselves as humans on this amazing planet, the best planet in my opinion, in the context of the entire universe,” Kirsten told Eye on Science. “I think it is remarkable to be a human on a planet hurling through space within the larger context that I have in understanding the vast structure of the universe. It's awe-inspiring. This thought does drive me toward the goal of protecting this planet. We need to understand our impacts and how we move forward so that we can conserve our planet and continue being astrophysicists and biologists and museum curators.”
We asked Kirsten her opinion on whether we should be spending resources studying the cosmos when we have so many problems to fix here on Earth. “I feel that conflict so wholly in my being,” she responded. “I’m grateful I’ve been afforded the ability to pursue astrophysics.” Kirsten explained that you must be passionate about a problem to fix it; that you can’t have one group of smart people throw all their energy at climate change because not everyone will feel the same commitment towards it. “There's so much value in people pursuing what speaks to them,” Kirsten said. “As academics, it's one of the most privileged positions to be in to spend your time at your job thinking about what's meaningful to you, be it astronomy or anything else.”
Kirsten believes astronomy itself provides significant intellectual value to society. “Our ability to look out into space is such a fundamental part of the human experience. The more I learn about the first astronomers, for examplethe Indigenous peoples of the Pacific islands who studied the sky to help with navigation…it's just so powerful; it’s such a rich and important part of human existence. It would be terrible for that not to exist.”
Besides, outer space helps us dream about what’s out there, beyond what we can see with our naked eye. As Kirsten suggested, space is one big cosmic spectacle. “A lot of space is just things collapsing or blowing up. Things moving, falling in on itself, blowing up, and definitely creating really cool light shows.” Yet, when it comes down to it, if Kirsten could be there to witness any cosmic event up close, it wouldn’t be a supernova, or two galaxies crashing into each other, like she might have imagined while watching the sky as a kid. Rather, with her astronomical roots firmly planted, she’d watch how Earth formed and evolved. “We've pieced it together as much as we can, and I can imagine it would be amazing to be able to witness the whole thing. We could answer the questions that we have about the planet's formation and the evolution life over time.”
Kirsten’s dual understanding of deep space and appreciation for life on Earth offers us a perspective that, arguably, we do not see often enough here on this planet. Kirsten can help us find common ground between those who want to explore space and those who want to dedicate resources to protecting planet Earth, the “best planet” as Kirsten expressed. “The intersection of disciplines is where progress is made,” she said.
