Junior Researcher at the Main Astronomical Observatory of the NAS of Ukraine, PhD student at the Institute of Physics of the NAS of Ukraine Olena Kompaniiets in her interview for the project "Residents of Kyiv" talked about her scientific path, volunteering, and how little people know about space.
The scientist spoke about how the war affected her life: "How to continue my scientific work? There is a war in my country, people die every day, cities are destroyed, and terrible things are happening, and what am I supposed to do — observe galaxies? I wanted to be useful here and now. Volunteering helped me switch. (...) Now I go to my regions as a volunteer. It is difficult to get there, but I have a registration and I am allowed in as a local resident. We deliver aid to frontline hospitals, to the military."
About her work, Olena Kompaniiets noted: "I study not the stars themselves, but I am interested in extragalactic astronomy, that is, galaxies of the nearby (so far) Universe, specifically isolated galaxies. These are the ones that have not gravitationally interacted with other galaxies for the last three billion years. They are like cosmic laboratories because they have long not been subjected to external influence."
Read the full interview text
Source: project "Residents of Kyiv"