Charity Woodrum
@CharityWoodrum
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✨ Astrophysics PhD candidate and NSF GRF @UArizona 🌵 NASA JWST NIRCam Team 🚀 Physics BS @UOregon 🦆 Student Pilot ✈️ Future @NASAGoddard 🛰️
Tucson, AZ
Joined May 2012
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At the age in this photo I asked a teacher how I could work for NASA. He laughed. He knew my parents never graduated high school. It’s been a difficult road but at 38 my biggest dream has come true. I start at NASA later this year after graduating with my PhD in astrophysics.
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Flight attendant: is there a doctor on this flight
Me: soon to be, but not that type of doctor…
Flight attendant: the captain needs an astrophysicist
(Actual email our department got)
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When I was a kid, I only knew what a scientist was because I saw them on TV. When I asked one of my teachers what I needed to do to work for NASA when I grew up, he chuckled.
Last week I was one of those scientists on live TV talking about JWST. Pursue your biggest dreams.
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My favorite
@NASAHubble
image on hexagons arranged in the same manner as the
@NASAWebb
mirrors. This image contains almost 10,000 galaxies!
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Undergrad me: Why is my astronomy professor so obsessed with dust, I don’t get it
Grad me: ohhhhhhhhhhhh
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My PhD advisor, Marcia Rieke, was 9 years old when the picture on the left was taken. She is now the PI of JWST’s main camera, NIRCam. On the right is a photo of the same object taken with NIRCam.
Tarantula Nebula from 1960 to now:
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1k followers, so I’ll introduce myself! I’m a first-gen high school grad - now getting my PhD in astrophysics! I’m a bereaved mother and widow. I’m the subject of a documentary film in production, which is about resilience, finding community, and my love for science and learning!
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From being an RN to pursuing a PhD in astrophysics.
It’s ok if your path is different than others. It’s never too late to change careers and pursue your big dreams!
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I think I found the astronomer version of this
Large boulder the size of a small boulder is completely blocking east-bound lane Highway 145 mm78 at Silverpick Rd. Please use caution and watch for emergency vehicles in the area.
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I’m so excited to announce that I’ve accepted a fellowship at
@NASAGoddard
through the NASA postdoctoral program! So thrilled to join the
@NASAWebb
team there! It’s always been my dream to work at NASA and I can’t believe it’s actually happening!
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A grad student friend
@millijanskys
has ideas! "I was going to suggest flaring satellites. A couple of other ideas: On Dec. 15, several amateur astrophotographers noted what appeared to be geostationary satellites overlapping a popular amateur observing target, the Orion Nebula.
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Got an email from NASA where they call me an expert for their flagship space telescope mission. I know people in my field get these every day and think it’s no big deal. But I freak out with excitement every single time. Living a childhood dream!
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Does anyone have ideas of what the pilots saw though?
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@harrynski
@stevenstrogatz
Yep! I went to nursing school after high school and became an RN. Couldn’t handle it emotionally so I went back to school for my passion. I am now about to get my PhD at 38 years old and start my dream job at NASA. It’s never too late to chase your dreams!
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I’m forever grateful to the community I found at the University of Oregon 💚💛💚 Such a proud Duck!
Charity Woodrum (
@AstroWoodrum
) was working successfully as a nurse when she discovered her passion for the stars and enrolled at the UO. Now she's working toward a PhD and will be among the first to see images from the Webb Space Telescope (
@NASAWebb
):
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They thought them odd because they move across the field of view slowly rather than leaving streaks like a low earth orbit satellite. Would be hard to see by eye though.
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@Gfoletta
I recently heard that teachers from my hometown and surrounding areas (in low income rural towns in Oregon) have been sharing my story with their students. I am hoping to visit some of their classrooms soon!
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More info from the pilot: they were red in appearance, moving vertically and horizontally in relation to the horizon, sometimes appearing to be in a circular path. All individually, with what appeared to be satellite flares or something reflecting the sun.
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The Geminid meteor shower could have generated bright objects moving quickly in a variety of directions on the sky, and it peaked early on Dec. 14. The rate of meteors would be lower by Dec. 17, but maybe not none." Thanks
@millijanskys
!
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Undefined control Me in a
sequence in LaTeX bookstore
🤝
What happened to my $
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Wow, thanks for the support, y’all! Here is a link to the trailer for a documentary about my life, we are currently seeking entertainment distribution to get on streaming services:
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With shaky legs on the rudder pedals and sweaty hands on the yoke and throttle, I SOLOED today!
The thought of flying an airplane all by myself was scarier than actually doing it. I felt confident as pilot in command.
Onwards and upwards to my pilot license!
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@poppy_northcutt
Such an honor to hear you say that,
@poppy_northcutt
! I think of your persistence very often and draw inspiration from you!
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@t0eknee
lol that’s my go to when people ask what that bright thing in the sky was during sunset or sunrise
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There’s a good chance StackOverflow deserves your PhD more than you do
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When one of your keypad passwords is the launch date of JWST but you can’t remember which launch date
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Nobody:
Me: I’m not sure if you’ve heard yet but there’s this telescope called JWST…
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I have so much respect and admiration for my PhD advisor, Marcia Rieke. So honored to be hooded by the mother of infrared astronomy at my graduation. Go Wildcats
@uarizona
!
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Hey
@Twitter
verify these
@NASA
astronauts
@AstroMD_Yvonne
@cboldenjr
@Astro_Stephanie
!!!
This movement is brought to you by
@That_Astro_Chic
@astronaia
@kaylajdr
@astrotoya
@astrostarbright
who deserve to be verified too
@Twitter
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Have you ever seen the Milky Way at night? Here are images from the observatory I worked at as an undergrad giving tours of the night sky to the public. People would always ask me, what are those dark streaks, why are there no stars there? (1/6)
Undergrad me: Why is my astronomy professor so obsessed with dust, I don’t get it
Grad me: ohhhhhhhhhhhh
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Can’t believe I’m actually seeing this in a FITS header (FITS files are one of the standard ways astronomers store data):
TELESCOP= 'JWST ' / Telescope used to acquire the data
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@toomanyspectra
Last time I wore a NASA shirt in a bar, a nearby man told me he thought people shouldn’t wear them unless they’ve worked at NASA before. My friend told him that I did used to work there as an intern and he didn’t believe her.
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“By Monday we will have the deepest data humanity has ever seen”
Said just now by our JWST
#JADES
proposal PI during our collaboration meeting!
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Me: I passed both of the qualifying exams for my PhD in astrophysics and will never have to take another exam again!
Also me: Let’s get our private pilot license, for fun.
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@Dr_Gamble21
Everyone is thinking it 😂 Only explanation for the amount of people who have bookmarked this post
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I can use research funds to purchase this right? It’s necessary that I have it, *for science*
I unfold just like the real
#NASAWebb
! Help teach people about
#space
telescopes by making me a real
#LEGO
set. I only need 3.8k more votes to be officially reviewed by
#LegoIdeas
! Visit
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The day we got married. Today would have been our 10 year anniversary. He lived every day until his last with love and rage.
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I passed my written Airman Knowledge Test today!
So close to getting my private pilot license!
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@jimlux
Goddard! The perfect place for my research studying galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope.
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little dogs getting carried after they get too tired is one of my fav things lol not a single thought in their tiny heads
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Had so much fun watching my favorite movie, Contact, with my favorite comedian/actor,
@ChrisGethard
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The bank rejected me for a personal loan since my grad school income is too low, which would delay my dream of becoming a pilot. Sandy and Marlys colluded with each other and offered to loan me the funds with a 0% interest rate. So lucky to have their support and friendship!
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It was so fun being an astronomer today. My office is in the JWST wing (aka Rieke-ville) of our department and so many people stopped by to share ideas and images and huge smiles! Oh and even mimosas!
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OMG what. This is surreal. You guys don��t understand how much of a fangirl I am for
@TheLoftCinema
!
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My older brother Troy died last night. He was more than a brother, he stepped in as my parent many times. I wouldn’t be alive today without him.
RIP bro. I’ll forever take care of your sons as much as they’ll let me.
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TW: Death
Today, it’s been 6 years since I lost my Dad. He was my biggest supporter. Since then, I’ve also lost my son, husband, and brother. On one hand, I’m glad he wasn’t here to see those things happen, but on the other, I really could have used his support. (1/2)
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Now that I’m writing a paper using data from the Very Large Array (VLA), I would like to recreate a similar picture from my favorite movie, Contact.
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I’m currently writing postdoc applications and it started raining in Tucson. I’m realizing how much I’m going to miss it here. I’ve been missing the vibrance of Oregon forests and next I’m going to miss the magic of the Sonoran Desert, especially during the rain.
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Paper day! Numerous studies have estimated that galaxies in the early universe are more massive than expected. We show that changing star formation parameters to reflect the higher temperatures in the infant universe can resolve the conflict with theory:
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Grad school is wild. Had a meeting with one of my favorite mentors who was looking through my paper draft, he pointed to one of my tables
Him: “How did you make these conversions?”
Me: “From your paper in 1998”
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The requests are starting to come in for
@NASAWebb
experts! I’ve said yes to all of them (n=2)! So excited for launch! Here’s my official NASA portrait from my undergrad internship 4 years ago. This is my first time sharing it, because it’s the nerdiest photo ever taken of me
Got an email from NASA where they call me an expert for their flagship space telescope mission. I know people in my field get these every day and think it’s no big deal. But I freak out with excitement every single time. Living a childhood dream!
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Dr. Fisher, my undergrad research advisor, is arguably the most influential scientist of my life trajectory. Here we are having a very serious meeting in Tucson.
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But there are just as many stars in those dark spots! Between us and those stars is a lot of dust blocking our view of the starlight! Galaxies contain lots of dust*. Here’s a picture of The Whirlpool Galaxy by Hubble. All those dark spots you see are, you guessed it, dust! (2/6)
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@nrui_tweet
Words of encouragement for my career, with a little bit of backstory about his mother and how she instilled in him the importance of encouraging women in science. He is so incredibly nice and uplifting.
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This is my first first-author JWST paper, and I laughed when I made this plot. Look at the redshifts for our sample of 102 galaxies! They correspond to ages of 320 million years and 804 million years after the Big Bang!
Paper day! Numerous studies have estimated that galaxies in the early universe are more massive than expected. We show that changing star formation parameters to reflect the higher temperatures in the infant universe can resolve the conflict with theory:
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And here is what our JADES (JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey) team calls the Cosmic Rose 🥀
Can I call you rose? 🌹
Ahead of
#ValentinesDay
, here's a gift for your Valentine in the form of this cosmic "bloom." Located 120 million light-years away, NGC 3256 is the result of a "meet-cute" between two galaxies that collided 500 million years ago:
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@sierragulf23
@AkilahObviously
Haha this was my Dad’s Jeep Scrambler that he eventually was forced to sell. I actually hope to get the same make, year, and model someday. Loved that Jeep.
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A thread of Chester’s outfits in the show “Generation” on HBO (played by Justice Smith) or what I wish my wardrobe looked like
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“In the coming weeks, you may be contacted to represent the mission at one of these events.” I will be saying yes to every event, anything for the mission, NASA!
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When I told
@ChrisGethard
that I was applying to be an astronaut, this was his response (along with some very kind words of encouragement):
“Extensive travel required” is putting it lightly
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My office-mate Ryan is not a very decorative fella. This was unacceptable to
@Kevin_Hainline
so he curated a gallery via local thrift stores and wrote exhibit labels with
@senchp
and surprise-decorated Ryan’s office space, a thread:
#AcademicTwitter
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In that time I’ve also become the first in my family to get a Bachelor’s and now Master’s as I pursue my PhD in astrophysics. I’ve also published papers, been on live National TV, and started a documentary. Hope he’s proud. Through hardships to the stars, Dad. (2/2)
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Safely completed my first cross-country solo today! Flew to Willcox, landed at Cochise County airport, and came back all by myself, about 160 miles and 1.5 hours of flight time.
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What would a lunar eclipse look like if you were on the moon?! In 2009, Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft took this image while in orbit around the Moon! (Image credit: JAXA)
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One of my favorite pairs of galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field and JADES (Hubble left; JWST right). I planned to write a paper about them because we thought they were merging. But we measured their distances and the galaxy on the left is actually much further away from us!
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I embarrass myself at flight school every time I solo
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Individual stars in the leftmost galaxy! And the two galaxies on the right interacting with each other! Ahhh!
James Webb’s first science images: before-and-after
Check it out: a comprehensive view of the Universe from before-and-after
@NASAWebb
's first science images.
You won't believe how spectacular the images, and the science, truly are!
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Does this make astronomers better coders than computer scientists? What they can do in 1 line takes us ~6.
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I had a dream about numpy last night, am I coding too much
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Our Cali premiere! At every festival I talk about Woody’s Stars, which provides funding and mentorship to STEM undergrads for all 4 yrs (historically excluded folks encouraged to apply)! Our funding comes from audience members who feel called to help!
Space, Hope and Charity
Saturday, November 4, 1PM, AC Theater. Director and Producer:Sandy Cummings; 79 min.
#ojai
#ojaifilmfest
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I am officially a student pilot!!!
However CARRYING PASSENGERS IS PROHIBITED! Good news for any interested passengers 😅
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When your conference outfit matches the landscape of your conference lunchtime walk
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@ravenscimaven
@mama_meta
YES. “You'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you”
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What a huge honor, I had tears seeing this for the first time. A 10 year old girl was asked to make a biography timeline of someone for a school project and she chose me.
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Was interviewed live on Oregon Public Broadcasting,
@OPB
. Hilarious that this is the pic they wanted to use. Maybe it’s an accurate representation of being an astronomer though. It was taken at ~4am after I had too much coffee while doing an observing run at MMT Observatory.
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Gave my 1st (and 2nd) guest lecture today, with 300 undergrads for Intro to Astronomy! They had so many great questions about galaxies!
High school me would not believe this, I used to be painfully shy. I avoided public speaking at all costs up until a few years ago.
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As an astronomer, I thought I understood last-minute rush and panic from my experiences on the day of proposal submissions… until I saw a cameraman during sunset
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Less than two days later and now almost 2k followers. Thanks y’all for the support ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
1k followers, so I’ll introduce myself! I’m a first-gen high school grad - now getting my PhD in astrophysics! I’m a bereaved mother and widow. I’m the subject of a documentary film in production, which is about resilience, finding community, and my love for science and learning!
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Here is another image of The Whirlpool Galaxy, but in infrared light taken by Spitzer. The bright red areas show us the dust in the galaxy! These are also the regions of the galaxy where active star formation is taking place! (3/6)
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