From Sailor Moon to Astronomer

Imagine a 5 year old girl curiously watching the anime, Sailor Moon. For those who are unfamiliar with the show, Sailor Moon follows the life of a girl named Usagi, who is bestowed magical powers from the Moon, and is descendent from the Moon Kingdom. Her royal guard, the Sailor Senshi, each come from their own respective planets.

From left to right: Sailor Star Healer, Sailor Star Maker, Sailor Star Fighter, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mars, Sailor Chibi Chibi, Sailor Moon, Sailor Chibi Moon, Sailor Neptune, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Pluto, Sailor Saturn

Because of my interest in Sailor Moon, I read upon the character bios of all the characters. Since each character represented a planet, I further delved into the histories of the planets, which led my curiosity to read about the characteristics of each planet. This was my first exposure to astronomy. 

Reading anything and everything I could find about the planets, I became very interested in astronomy as a subject from a very young age. I sought new materials to read whenever I came across them, including textbooks, videos, and documentaries. Documentaries about astronomy really piqued my interest outside of the solar system, and into the vast cosmos beyond. 

As a result, 7-year old me would look into things like the Big Bang, how the Universe would die, quasars, supermassive black holes, the birth and death of stars, and how the Earth was formed. Everything about the cosmos fascinated me, to the point that I wanted to be an astrobiologist. But honestly, the thing that captivated my childhood brain was all the pretty pictures of stars and planets. The Universe is like shiny glitter everywhere, which is what 7-year old girls like. 

One of the highlights I remember was when I was in 5th grade, the New Horizons probe was launched on a mission to Pluto. I was so excited about it, because I had seen a documentary about it a couple of weeks earlier. I remember I would check the countdown clock every day to see how much time was left until New Horizons would reach Pluto in 2015, down to the minutes and seconds. Now that it is 2015, I am ecstatic that the almost-ten-year wait is over.