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Life on other planets : a memoir of finding my place in the universe / Aomawa Shields, PhD.

by Shields, Aomawa, author.

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New York : Viking, [2023]

Shields, Aomawa.

Women astronomers -- United States -- Biography.

9780593299180 (hardcover) :

0593299183 hardcover

332 pages : illustration ; 24 cm

Beginning -- The big bang ; Expansion ; Jazz ; High flight ; Choosing -- Physics ; Research ; Tide ; Migration ; Acting ; Home ; Temping ; Break ; Recovery ; Pluto ; Stars and life ; Hair ; Returning -- Solar cycle ; Snowballs and life ; The qual ; Ice ; The weather on other worlds ; Gravitational interactions ; Congratulations, Dr. Shields ; Merging -- Different stars ; Harvard ; TED ; Kids ; Exploding stars ; A bird's wing in Taos ; Evolution ; Pregnant ; Welcome to the world ; Plenary ; Neowise ; Rising -- I never thought I was only located here ; Aliens ; Congratulations, Professor Shields ; First day of class ; Twelve things going through my mind during an average minute of my life on retreat in Ojai ; Destiny ; Home ; Journey.

"A stunning and inspiring memoir charting a life as an astronomer, classically-trained actor, mother, and Black woman in STEM, searching for life in the universe while building a meaningful life here on Earth. As a child, Aomawa Shields was always bumping into things, her neck craned up at the sky, dreaming of becoming an astronaut. One year into an astrophysics PhD program, she was plagued by self-doubt and discouraged by a white male professor who suggested that she--a young Black woman who also loved fashion, makeup, and the arts--didn't belong. She left astronomy and pursued acting professionally for a decade, before a day job working for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope drew her back to the stars. She was the oldest and the only Black student in her PhD cohort. This time, no professor and no voice in her own head, would stop her. Now an astronomer and astrobiologist at the top of her field, Dr. Shields studies the universe outside our solar system. She researches and uncovers the planets circling distant stars with just the right conditions that could support life, while also using her theater education to communicate the wonder and magic of the universe to those of us here on Earth. Hers has been a journey as winding and complex as the physics she has mastered. Life on Other Planets is a memoir of discovery on this world and on others, a story of creating a life that makes space for joy, love, and wonder while being driven by one of our biggest questions: Is anybody else out there? It is about the possibility of living between multiple worlds and not choosing, but instead charting a new path entirely" --Provided by publisher.

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