By Yumna Bodiat
Edited by Imaan Moosa
We spoke to the inspiring Nthabiseng Khanye on HERstory as an astrophysicist.
Twenty-six-year-old Brakpan-born astrophysicist and cosmologist began her journey at a young age, captivated by her curiosity of how our world came to be and motivated by the fundamental and challenging why's and how's of our universe.
From a young age I have always been curious about how the solar system works. What holds it in place, is it possible that one day all the stars can just disappear and if so where will they go?
Nthabiseng Khanye is a soon-to-be x4 University of the Witwatersrand graduate, currently en-route to completing her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The topic of her thesis is 'The astrophysical implications of dark matter annihilation in galaxy clusters that host diffuse emissions'. In layman terms she explains:
Many cosmologists and astrophysicists agree that the universe is held together by invisible and undetectable stuff called dark matter. We don't know what this dark matter is made of, how it interacts with ordinary matter and itself. However, we know that there is a lot of it all over the universe. Actually, there is x5 more dark matter than normal matter in the universe. Normal matter in this case is everything we can observe, detect and interact with, including me, you, light and every particle in existence.
She says her field of study uses radio observations of galaxy clusters from telescopes such as that of the SKA to constrain the parameters of dark matter. This enables scientists to optimise their future chances of detecting it.
With a keen interest in the study of galaxy clusters, Khanye says, "Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe. They host the most interesting phenomena we know of, and so they are very good laboratories in the study of the universe."
"I chose this project because it brings together a lot of fields of physics such as gravity, magnetic fields and galaxy mergers to try to understand one of the biggest mysteries in science," she says.
Pictured: Nthabiseng Khanye attending an astrophysics conference in Russia. Photo: Provided
In the study of astrophysics, astrophysicists are often questioned on the creation of the universe and how it came to be. Khanye tells us that astrophysicists do not know the entity of how the universe works as humankind has only been around for a second in comparison to the age of the universe.
"I personally believe in the Big Bang Theory. It makes more sense to me compared to the other explanations of the origin of the universe. However, the theory itself still has a lot of questions to answer, which is what we are trying to do as the scientific community," she says.
We asked Khanye about her experience as a woman in astrophysics and how she navigates her place in the sciences in a field that has been a longstanding 'men only' club.
As much as we talk about transformation and inclusion on a daily basis, you will be shocked at how science like many other professions is still led and dominated by men. It's still as if no one has been listening. From lecture halls to international conferences, females are still largely outnumbered by males in this profession. It's even worse when you are a young woman of colour like me. It gets to a point where you feel discouraged and doubt yourself because sometimes you feel out of place, like an imposter.
She says the best way to deal with these challenges is to continue to remind yourself that you deserve to be in that room just as much as the man next to you and that you are equally as capable as they are.
Within the next few years, Khanye sees herself mentoring the next generation of female scientists and offering guidance from where to start at an entry-level to publishing scripts as a scientist. She believes it is important to offer guidance to aspiring women scientists in ways to which she did not have access.
A note from Nthabiseng Khanye:
"The key to achieving anything in life is consistency, it is vital that you are consinsent in working on your dreams and never giving up no matter how hard it gets. Work on your scientific skills as much as you can and start as early as possible.".
Appendix:
SKA: The Square Kilometre Array is an intergovernmental radio telescope project which was proposed to be built in Australia and South Africa. It was conceived in the 1990s, and further developed and designed by late 2010. It has a total collecting area of approximately one square kilometer.
More about Nthabiseng:
What are your interests outside of astrophysics? E-commerce, traveling and baking.
Which women scientists inspire you the most and why? Katherine Johnson (1918 - 2020). Despite all the difficulties she faced as an African American scientist at NASA she still managed to play a pivotal role in [getting] the astronaut John Glenn into space.
If you had to choose one movie related to astrophysics (or astronomy) to recommend, what would it be and why? Hidden Figures. It shows what we can accomplish as female scientists if we work together and how important it is for us as women to take up space and believe in ourselves, even if no one else does.
Comments