How did the first galaxies form? How old are the oldest stars? Much of the universe remains uncharted territory. As astronomers study the abundance of celestial objects and phenomena outside Earth’s atmosphere, they constantly make discoveries that change the way we see the universe. Because of the substantial amount of physics used, modern astronomers are often called astrophysicists. Astrophysicists, such as Shep Doeleman, apply the laws of physics to understand celestial marvels.

Unlike many astronomers, Doeleman did not spend his childhood gazing through a telescope at the night sky. It was not until later that he became hooked on the mysteries of the universe. After college, Doeleman spent a year in Antarctica working on several investigations, including an astronomy experiment that detected high-energy particles in space. Now he travels to telescope observatories all over the world and conducts cutting-edge experiments to discover unknown features of the cosmos.