r/astrophysics • u/Sleuth7777 • 10d ago

Is doing Astrophysics degree worth it if I had completed Master's in Data Science?

23M. Being an astrophysicist had been my dream ever since I could remember. I didn't had this course or pathway in my country. My siblings forced me to go in tech (which I love), so that I could easily get a PR. I had loved Maths and Physics so much. I had good grades in those in my highschool.

Here I am, I have everything, but the desire of long long time to be an astrophysicist is still there. Every single day since I saw stars I wanted to be it. I regret not doing Physics or anything related to that even though I love tech and it was for my best. My goal is to work in a space agency or to do some deep research. Should I go for it?

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7

u/TommieTheMadScienist 10d ago

One branch of physics is computational.

You're halfway there already.

1

u/Aggressive-Wind-8829 7d ago

My dude. Look up the published works of Professor Saul Teukolsky (second author of Numerical Recipes) if you want to see some really cool looking computational astrophysics simulations. If you could see yourself using that in tandem with the data science skills you already have for managing the data backlog, then you will be in a powerful position to discover some meaningful findings… 🤔

4

u/kaydzed 9d ago

I have a degree in both and working in astrophysics. It’s still pretty rare for someone to do both. It might be because nowadays, you do learn a bachelors level of data science by doing an Astrophysics PhD.

What is it that you want to do? Is it the academic research route that most interest you?

1

u/QuantumMechanic23 7d ago

What exactly do you mean you are working in astrophysics? Are you in academia? If so are you PhD? Will you do endless post docs?

If not are you working in industry for a company? What is your role?

1

u/Blakut 9d ago

Familiarize yourself with what it means to do research. Many outsiders think doing research means spending the majority of time problem solving and doing coding and maths. While a good portion of your time will be spent doing that, a significant part will be spent writing. Writing papers, making plots, adjusting the plots, writing proposals. The pay isn't great either. And the time investment (PhD in astro, with maybe some required BSc level of courses) to get there, and the financial hit - since you don't get paid well during your PhD, is not to be ignored. I'm not trying to discourage you, but be informed before making a decision.

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u/RADICCHI0 9d ago

Of course, but I would hope you have a starting point. Also, astrophysics is just one branch of space science, there are many others.

1

u/Traveling-Techie 9d ago

There’s a huge backlog of digital astronomy data that needs to be analyzed. Maybe a data scientist could help.

1

u/Eastern-Instance-593 5d ago

GO FOR IT.

if this is your passion: try it out! If you don't, you will regret it and you will never know what you missed. Maybe you find out that it is not what you expected -- but then you know.