Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers
Season 2010 Episode 26 | 6m 32s | Video has closed captioning.
Caroline Moore is the youngest person to ever discover a supernova. During the day, she goes to high school. She is also an accomplished classical and jazz singer.
Aired: 03/19/10
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
- [Narrator] Funding for the secret life of scientists is provided by the Alfred P Sloan foundation.
(piano music) - So I found the rare supernova ever to be found which is really cool.
I'm only 15 years old.
It's rare because it's somewhere between a Nova and a supernova.
It could be also a super massive star that exploded creating a black hole which is really kind of creepy and odd.
And it's really cool because I'm 15 which makes it even cooler because I'm like the coolest person ever.
Whatever.
(piano music) The most amazing thing for me in astronomy is the unknown.
It's like a mystery.
You're wondering what it is out there.
I belong to the puck at supernova search team and I'm one of the data searchers.
So I go through all the pictures that they send to me A set of data is a new and old picture of the same area of the sky.
So I'm comparing the new and the old picture to look for a change which would be the supernova.
In this one case I was very unsure because of how dim it was.
And it just didn't fit the general category for what a supernova should look like in an image but it didn't show up in any of the searches in any of the archives.
So I went ahead and decided to send it in.
It was a late late night school night was probably about 11:3,.
I was in bed.
A friend on the team called me.
(phone rings) So I answered the phone.
I said oh, what do you want?
I'm sleeping, I have a big test tomorrow.
He said, "You've discovered this supernova "that's going to destroy the earth."
Of course he was kidding.
But I jumped down up and down for joy.
I was extremely excited.
It was an amazing moment for me.
- Joining us now is Caroline Moore.
She's an amateur astronomer.
She is 14 years old.
- It's also an extremely rare supernova.
And Caroline is an.. - After finding my supernova, I had a lot of publicity.
There was a night of astronomy at the White House.
(crowd cheering) I was hosting the event with the president.
- Caroline Moore.
She became the youngest person ever to discover a supernova - Going to the white house was probably one of the most amazing experiences I will ever have.
The president's right there.
The first ladies right there you feel so honored and you feel important.
It feels like it not even happening.
There's an emotional part of looking at the sky because there's just so much that we've yet to discover.
I hope that I'm serving as a good role model.
Educating younger kids on astronomy and science and how enjoyable it can really be.
(piano music) I've been singing forever.
(indistinct) I've always been the one who stands the restaurant and start singing in her little pink you know, poking out dressed.
I really enjoy singing Irish folk music.
♪ Oh tiny boy ♪ ♪ The pipes the pipes ♪ ♪ Are calling.
♪ I've had people in the audience singing Oh Danny boy.
♪ I love you so.
♪ when I'm singing in front of an audience right before I'm really nervous, I'm kind of shaky.
(mumbles) We do that for warm ups but it's amazing when you get up there and you really get to express your talent, express your emotions through your singing.
(indistinct) Some people get an adrenaline rush from sports.
I get an adrenaline rush from singing and performing.
There's a sound resonating throughout your body.
And it's a good feeling.
And some people produce it with an instrument but you're producing it with your body.
And that's an amazing thing.
And you can make a quality and a beautiful sound from your body.
♪ It's him and me forever and forever.
♪ (piano music) There was a doggy bowl fish full of water.
I was like people actually live here.
10.
Box.
The day the earth stood still.
- You should let me go.
- Oh the original version, the black and white version.
- Black two, (indistinct).
- Orion, it's guy, the Orion Nebula NA which is my favorite deep space object.
Miley Cyrus definitely.
She's not as fake and doesn't have blonde hair.
Reaching, I don't know, reaching for the stars.
Sasha is really really adorable.
And then Malia's 11 and she's like two inches taller than me.
So I might have been slightly intimidated by that (chuckles).
No I couldn't pick.
Pluto because it's now not actually a planet but it is a planet.
It's a dwarf planet that makes it a planet.
Oh that's not a fair question.
Supernova.
(piano music)
