she points to is a segment she did on auroras that spawned a host of questions like why are there different colors , how fast do they move and , even , do they make noise . “ I like the idea of talking with kids and getting them started at a younger age , but there are many sides to outreach ,” she said . “ I like to hit high school because they ’ re at that transition of do they really know how much opportunity is out there for them . When I was in high school in West Virginia , I was taught you choose one major in college , you find a job , that ’ s it . I had no sense of you can do research as an undergrad . No one told me .” Bringing young people into the science fold is critical , but it ’ s not Ahrens only outreach goal . “ I love reaching adults . Even adults should still have that sense of curiosity ,” she said . “ They don ’ t have to go into research , but there should always be that sense of curiosity of ‘ Have you ever wondered about space volcanoes ? Have you ever wondered about what if Earth lived near a pulsar or what if the Earth had two moons ?’ There should be always a sense of curiosity on all levels .” When she ’ s not doing outreach , Ahrens is engrossed in her own research , which currently centers on Pluto . Her first foray into planetary science was during an internship with a USGS astrogeology project in Flagstaff , Ariz . “ From there , I worked on the Mars global surveyor that has since been decommissioned ,” she said . “ They specifically wanted someone to look at dunes on Mars . It may not sound exciting – they ’ re big piles of sand on Mars — but it ’ s quite entertaining because if you ’ re looking at a sand pile , it could move and then you have to start over . Sand moves everywhere on Mars . That was a very entertaining process , and we also discovered a dune on Mars , so I was on the team to name a dune on Mars .” It was when she began her Ph . D . work at the University of Arkansas that her focus shifted to the ice geology of Pluto .
Sky ’ s Up
COURTESY OF Caitlin Ahrens
Ahrens speaks during an outreach event to a group of adults — a demographic she loves to reach .
“ The tricky part about Pluto is that all we sent was New Horizons ,” she said . “ New Horizons was our very first , absolutely gorgeous look at Pluto , but , we only have one side of Pluto , and only one time frame of Pluto . And it went by so quickly , that what if something active was going on on Pluto , we wouldn ’ t have been able to catch it . So there ’ s a sense of we need to go back for that purpose . Is anything actually moving on Pluto . Is anything active ? We definitely see flow features on Pluto , but we can ’ t tell from one image how quickly it ’ s flowing , how young are certain features . Color variations on Pluto , do they change at all ? That part ’ s tricky . You can only do so much with images and data of one flyby .” With so little data to work with , Ahrens relies on the Pluto lab that she manages at the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences . In addition to the Pluto lab , the center has a Venus lab , a Titan lab and two Mars labs in which researchers can essentially simulate temperatures and pressures of the different planetary bodies . “ We specifically do planetary simulations , which I love to call mad science . It ’ s so cool , and hardly anybody knows about us ,” Ahrens said . Ahrens makes it clear that she wants people to know about the research done at the center , just as she wants people to know about amazing scientific work being done throughout the world . She also wants to make sure that others realize how diverse the scientific community really is and give recognition to all of those who churn the wheels of discovery . When asked about her influences , she is quick to include two women who did not immediately get the recognition they deserved . One is Jocelyn Bell Burnell , an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who discovered pulsars as a graduate student . “ During that time that she was a grad student , the ( male ) advisor got the credit and even went on to win a Nobel Prize for it ,” Ahrens said . “ But she persevered . She still eventually had her name associated with pulsars .” The other woman is Katherine Johnson , the NASA mathematician who calculated flight paths during many of the agency ’ s most important missions — including Apollo 11 . The book and subsequent film “ Hidden Figures ” recently shined a much deserved spotlight on Johnson ’ s contributions . Like Johnson , Ahrens is from West Virginia — a fact that Ahrens feels has contributed to disregard that some have aimed at her in the past . “ If she can do it , if she can persevere through where she ’ s from , her background , then we could all achieve our goals ,” said Ahrens . In this Rising Star Q & A feature , Ahrens discusses her research and her never-ending quest to spread the word about science .
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