With support from NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project, sophomore Anastasia Eriksen is spending her summer conducting research and educating Nebraskans at Branched Oak Observatory.
“Growing up, I was really into science and math," Eriksen said. “My parents constantly took me to Morrill Hall. I remember visiting the museum and getting to talk to all these cool people who loved science, and it really rubbed off on me.”
Eriksen’s passion has earned her a grant through NASA's National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project. These grants are awarded to students around the country who, like Eriksen, are eager to share their love for science with their broader communities. The grant is funding Eriksen’s internship at Branched Oak Observatory this summer, where she educates visitors on astronomy and conducts research at the facility.
“Along with outreach, we’re able to do our own observational astronomy research, which includes data analysis on astrological phenomena,” she said. “Most recently, we detected an asteroid that will pass near Earth — we’re hoping we can help determine the shape of the asteroid with our data.”
As a Claire M. Hubbard Environmental Science Communication Intern at Morrill Hall, Eriksen is one of those “cool people who loves science,” working in the museum’s Muller Planetarium to inspire new generations and help them get excited about exploring scientific studies.
“At the planetarium, I use special software to create interactive programs. Every month, we have a new topic: maybe it’s about sustainability, extreme environments or animal relationships,” she said. “It’s so much fun because I have people in there who have never been to a planetarium or don’t know about astronomy, and I just go and talk to them about something that I'm really passionate about that they're also curious about.”
Eriksen is also beginning an Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience program this summer under Irina Filina, associate professor in Earth and atmospheric sciences. The project is focused on geophysical modeling of the Earth's magnetic field.
“Earth’s magnetic field reverses over the course of millions of years and we have no idea why,” she said. “We’re going to map out how it’s changed over the last 55 million years and hopefully someone can use that to figure out why this happens. I’m really excited to get started.”
