WEEK     JOB: ASTRONOMER

LOCATION: HILO, HAWAII

EMPLOYER: UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII INSTITUTE FOR ASTRONOMY

WAGE: $99,730 YEAR [Source: BLS]

JOB DESCRIPTION: I shadowed Gary and Kenyan as they visited classrooms around the island to educate the kids about the cosmos and introduce them to a profession often overlooked. The highlight of the week was a trip to the top of Mauna Kea, one of the most important land-based astronomy sites in the world, where I met other astronomers exploring the galaxy.

INDUSTRY IQ:

• It’s predicted that the high school students of today will be the astronauts of tomorrow who walk on Mars for the first time.

• Light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. It would take 14 billion years traveling at the speed of light to get to the edge of the universe.

• The light from the sun takes eight minutes to reach our eyes. This means that when the sun is within eight minutes of the horizon, in reality it’s already set.

WHAT I LEARNED: We are really, really small.