4.6 Billion Years

I'm a geologist. Yeah. Rocks and stuff. Yes, I've heard that pun before. I've heard all of those puns before.

That's a pretty standard conversation with anyone who isn't a fellow geologist, although we do love a good rock-based pun. Today, I want to chat about why I love geology so much, and my independent research project that I'm currently working on. I'm a 4th year at university, and have moved from Earth-based geology to space. I study meteorites and asteroids now.

People often look down on geologists, and I had that from my own family, but often it is because they don't really know what we do and how much we know. What could be interesting about rocks, right?

I am constantly astounded by the world around me. We take so much for granted, but we are standing on a tiny ball of rock that is hurtling around the Sun which is in turn hurtling through space, and it has survived for 4.6 billion years. You can walk through landscapes and touch rocks that are older than mankind by millions of years. You can pick up a pebble that was there at the time of the dinosaurs. You can see ancient sea beds and volcanoes and rivers and life. You can reconstruct the past on a grand scale. You can see how our Earth has changed and developed, and you can imagine what it will look like in the future.

Geology is a wonderful tool of understanding. It teaches you to think in bizarre time-scales - where a million years is pretty damn fast - and you start to view the Earth as a complete system that has been working since long before we were here and will continue long after we've gone.

It's also great to study at university. It's a field science, so you get to go to different places, and you can learn from people that are equally passionate. We form incredibly strong bonds over pints in the pub and sheltering under trees on mountains. You'd be surprised how much fun you can have in the rain whilst standing next to an outcrop for scale.

I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. I love being able to see and understand the history of the world by walking through it. The Earth is old and it is beautiful. 

Right. Enough of that. Let's talk about space. 

Until May, I'll be working on an independent research project looking at using actual meteorite samples to discern rock-types on an asteroid some 251 million km away from Earth. I think that's pretty cool. I'll be using a Scanning Electron Microscope (like a normal microscope but uses electrons rather than light, and can detect elements) and data sets from NASA's Dawn probe. The asteroid I'm studying is Vesta - the 4th asteroid to be discovered. I'll write a post about Vesta at some point because it is really interesting, and we have some stunning images of it now.

I had never expected to turn to planetary geology, as this is, but I have always been fascinated by space. I suppose it isn't all that surprising really. In geology, we can see millions and millions of years of history. In planetary geology and space science, we can see billions. Studying meteorites and asteroids give us a window into the early Solar System (and it means you get to touch something that is 4.6 billion years old and came from millions of miles away). This area of research is very much curiosity-driven, which is no bad thing. We live in an extraordinary place, and it is only natural that we want to know more.

I'm so happy to have the opportunity to do this research now. Perhaps I should have chosen a project that would put me inline to work in industry, but this is a chance I might never get again. I had never thought I'd have to carry 10 different meteorite samples with me to university, let alone spend all my time studying them and trying to draw new conclusions and ideas. 

I guess the main thing that I want you to take away from this is that it's OK to choose to do something because it's fun. It's OK to be passionate. It's OK to be a little weird in the eyes of others. Your interests are valid, and it's your life to do with what you want. If it's something that you want to do, then do it. It is better to try than to spend your life regretting it. This applies to so many things. 

Be enthusiastic. Be passionate. Be interested. Be amazed and search for things that will stun you with awe.