CJ Day
Staff Writer
Many students work on projects that might seem strange, but only a handful of students get a chance to study things literally out of this world.
Christilyn Gardner, a graduate student working in the Physics and Astronomy Department, is one of those students. She works to discover and classify exoplanets, planets which orbit other stars in solar systems light-years away from Earth.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the possibility of life elsewhere,” said Gardner.
Gardner, with other members of the astronomy department, use the university’s telescope to observe the transits of these exoplanets. By observing these planets using various filters and lenses, astronomers can determine the chemical makeup of their atmosphere.
From there, their data gets handed over to astrobiologists, who do further research to determine whether the planet could harbor life. While the research sounds extremely interesting to a layperson, Gardner said it is not as glamorous as it seems.
“Undergrads always think it’s going to be a really interesting job,” she said, “but a lot of astronomy is just working on a computer.”
Ever since she was a kid, Gardner said she wanted to be an astrophysicist, but her path to the major was not a straight or short one. Going into college, one of Gardner’s counselors talked her out of physics, encouraging her to become a dental hygienist instead.
“I didn’t think I could do physics,” she said. “But I went on my first rounds with a dentist, and I knew I couldn’t do that.”
Gardner dropped out of college, and for five years she worked as a waitress. All that time, however, she could not get one idea out of her mind.
“One day I had a breaking point,” she said. “I said to myself, ‘I want to find aliens’.”
Since then, she has redoubled her efforts to become an astrophysicist. Though she did not start studying in Laramie, she had the chance to visit during her undergrad, and fell in love with the town.
“That was before I found out about the wind, though,” Gardner said.
The University of Wyoming has a couple of benefits that make it the best place to study, she said, the largest of which is that UW owns its own telescope. Unlike other astronomy departments, where faculty have to beg and whine for just a few nights of telescope time, the UW astronomy department offered Gardner 180 nights.
All that time has allowed UW’s astronomy department to work on projects that might take other departments years to finish. Gardner said she is excited to work on the cutting edge of her chosen field.
“We live in such a great time for this astronomy, this exploration,” she said.
The future is still a bit unclear for Gardner, who did not think she would be working on something like this even three years ago. She said she would like to work for NASA someday, but right now she is focused on graduating.
Gardner said she is still unsure on whether or not intelligent life exists on other planets.
“The more I learn about this field, the scarier it gets,” said Gardner. “It’s scary to think we’re unique.”
The great unanswered question in astrobiology is that if aliens do exist, then why have we not found them yet, said Gardner.
“Maybe we’re not smart enough,” she said. “Maybe we can’t find them using our current tools.”
Life might even exist on other celestial bodies in our solar system. Gardner said many places closer to home might harbor life, like the icy moons of Jupiter or even Mars. One thing is sure, though-
“If life ever gets discovered,” Gardner said, “I want to have helped.”
