Post by Princeton University

During her first year at Princeton, Jahnavi Murthy Padukone '26 was deciding between two majors: astrophysics or computer science. After taking AST 206: Black Holes, her mind was made up. "The class taught me how the biggest stars in our universe exist only because of the way the smallest particles behave and that nature has an unshakable order, whether we see it or not." (She chose to minor in computer science). Junior year, Jahnavi was accepted into the Space Physics Laboratory course (AST 250/251), led by Princeton astrophysical sciences professor Dave McComas who also participated in dozens of NASA missions. The two semester course introduced her to heliophysics and a behind the scenes look of building space instruments. Jahnavi was over the moon when she was given the opportunity to do her senior thesis using data from the Parker Solar Probe, a NASA spacecraft that went closer to the sun’s surface than any human-made object. On board the probe was an instrument led by McComas. Jahnavi wrote Python scripts to process real data from the spacecraft. She went on to plot eight years' worth of data recorded at 2-minute intervals, researching how particles from the sun interact with magnetic field lines from different angles. "Solar activity and energetic particles from the sun affect our satellite communication, space observation and even the safety of astronauts in orbit. Understanding how these particles are accelerated via the magnetic field away from the sun is crucial to better forecast space weather," she said. McComas and postdoctoral research associate Manuel Cuesta were Jahnavi's thesis advisors. Cuesta, in particular, showed Jahnavi "how to connect different concepts in heliophysics, transform raw numbers and data into visualizable results and interpret what these results mean for the bigger picture." Throughout the experience, Jahnavi, from Bangalore, India, realized the value of the thesis process. "In a way, I enjoy when things don't work out on the first go. It’s definitely frustrating to have to rerun your code or stay up late debugging, but it’s incredibly fun trying to approach the problem from different angles until something sticks."