Kosmosest: A Recap

Hello, I hope you’ve had a great start to September!

Fall is a reflective time for me, because that's always been the start of new degrees or positions (I assume for many readers as well). This year, Sept. 1st marked one year of PhD research at the European Southern Observatory, and you’ll find a brief overview at the end of today’s newsletter issue.

I find this also a fitting time to revisit some of the topics covered in the newsletters so far. Let’s take a look.

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The first newsletter ⤵️

KOSMOSEST #1

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Telltale signatures of newborn stars ⤵️

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The Artemis mission reviving human lunar exploration ⤵️

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Gravitational lensing ⤵️

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The mission that changed the path of an asteroid ⤵️

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Gravitational waves ⤵️

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PhD: Year 1

Coming back from the newsletter overview to my own research, here are a few highlights:

• My first proposal for telescope time was accepted. This proposal came together with the input from my advisor and collaborators, and allowed us to acquire observations with a brand new instrument on the VLT, Very Large Telescope.

  

  One of the four telescopes that makes up the VLT (Very Large Telescope) facility in Cerro Paranal, Chile. Credit: ESO/Babak Tafreshi

Telescope Names. Credit: xkcd

• I attended workshops and gave presentations in Naples and Milan.

• I presented a poster in Greece, at the conference “Star Formation in the Era of J. W. Space Telescope” and learned about star formation at a large cosmic scale.

  

  Left: conference banner in Greece. Right: View from the INAF Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory, Italy.

• My first co-authored paper of the PhD was published.

• I have learned a lot about protoplanetary disks, especially the cases when they are in the vicinity of massive stars, which irradiate them (my focus).

  

  

  Components of an externally photoevaporated protoplanetary disk—a proplyd. We will get into the depths of these objects once my project on these objects gets published (more work ahead, though!).

• I have made monthly summaries of year 1 on Instagram (account needed for viewing).

Some of the things I’ve been up to.

• Most importantly, I’m part of a great team.

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Thanks for reading!

—MLA