Grace Gouin, a four-year outfielder, graduated from Colby College in May majoring in Physics with a concentration in Astrophysics. A member of the 2024 NESCAC All-Sportsmanship Team, Gouin finished her career totaling 31 hits, 28 runs, 19 RBI and 13 stolen bases in 82 games played. In her own words, here is what Gouin has been up to since graduation…

This summer I am working in collaboration with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center through the UMBC CRESST II program. It is a 10-week internship focusing on the analysis of Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph data from the Hubble Space Telescope for the recurrent nova M31N 2008-12a in the Andromeda galaxy.

A nova is a close binary system consisting of a white dwarf (WD) and either a main sequence, sub-giant, or red giant star. The WD accumulates material from its companion star until a violent explosion is triggered that pushes away the WD's outer shell of material. This causes an increase in the brightness of the system, known as a nova eruption. The nova I will be looking at is unique because it erupts yearly, making it the most frequent recurrent nova on record by a large margin. It is the most likely pre-explosion Supernova Type Ia progenitor candidate in any galaxy, making it a very exciting object to work with. The study of M31N 2008-12a offers a unique opportunity to observe the end stages of stellar evolution and the formation of one of the most powerful events in the universe.

I worked at Goddard last summer with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Project Science team and I am very happy to be back in the Washington D.C. area. Watching the end stages of the Roman Telescope’s construction has been an incredible experience. I can’t wait to see all the ways it will benefit astrophysics research after its launch in 2027. After this summer I will enter an Astronomy PhD program at Texas A&M University, where I plan to continue collaborating with NASA Goddard.