Max Mutchler
I have been working at the Space Telescope Science
Institute (STScI) since Hubble was launched into
orbit by the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990. It
was exhilarating to begin my career by sitting in
the grandstand in the "VIP" area at the
Kennedy Space Center when the Hubble mission began
with a roaring blaze.
When I was in elementary school in a small blue-collar
Wisconsin town, if someone could have shown me the
future -- that my budding interest in space science
(see school photo at the end of the page) would
eventually lead me to that launch, and to a career
working with the greatest telescope ever built --
I wouldn't have been able to believe it. I still
have the same basic awe and giddy enthusiasm for
learning about the universe that I had in elementary
school: How did the universe begin? How it will
end? What it is made of? How did intelligent life
arise? Is there anybody else out there? Can mere
mortals actually find specific answers to these
Big Questions?
This burning interest propelled me through many
science and math courses which I otherwise would
not have taken in high school and college. Who would
ever take a Quantum Mechanics course when you could
take a course about the Romantic poets instead?
You'd have to have a pretty compelling reason. I
kept studying science, but later on, I married a
poet.
When I think about the fragile winding path that
has led me to my current work with Hubble, I am
very grateful (and as suprised as a schoolboy) that
I have been able to spend my entire adult life contributing
directly to such a profound and worthwhile endeavor.
I am currently a Science Data Analyst working mostly
with Hubble's workhorse cameras: the venerable Wide
Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), which was installed
during the first Hubble servicing mission in December
1993, and the new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS),
which was installed by Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts
(photo above) in March 2002. These cameras have
taken most of the fabulous images that have made
Hubble famous.
My science projects have included studies of planetary
nebulae in our Milky Way galaxy and the nearby Magellanic
Clouds, deep field cosmology, and most recently
a survey of nearby galaxies using yet another space
telescope: the Space Infrared Telescope Facility
(SIRTF), which was renamed Spitzer Space Telescope.
In my spare time, I am also involved in educational
outreach. More about my work is available here:
http://www.stsci.edu/~mutchler/
In recent collaborations with my wife, I discovered
the most amazing objects in the universe: our two
young children. They already know about the Sun
and Moon, and someday probably, the stars and galaxies.
But they seem to have a knack for rhyming, too.
I do have many personal interests, hobbies, and
aspirations outside of astronomy, but they are really
now just secondary to (or a part of) this one: I
want my children to know the joys of finding their
own true path, their true loves, and following them
as far and as long as their brief time in this beautiful
and mysterious universe will allow.
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