Nebraska native explores galaxies far, far away

Growing up on a small farm in Nebraska, Megan Donahue ’85 discovered the wider world by reading her way through her local library. Today, she is learning how the wider universe works by studying galaxy clusters. Donahue discovered her passion for physics in that library at age 12 and started her path into astronomy thanks to “a providential interaction.”

在内布拉斯加州的一个小农场长大，梅根·多纳休（Megan Donahue，1985届校友）通过在当地图书馆阅读，探索了更广阔的世界。如今，她正通过研究星系团来了解宇宙的运作方式。多纳休在12岁时于图书馆发现了自己对物理学的热情，并因一次“天赐的机缘”开启了她的天文学之路。

Through MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, she got introduced to cutting-edge x-ray imaging—work she found “really cool.” Now a professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University, she researches galaxy clusters and baryonic matter (matter made of protons and neutrons, as opposed to dark matter) in an effort to learn more about the composition of the universe and its evolution.

通过麻省理工学院的本科生研究机会计划（UROP），她接触到了尖端的X射线成像技术，并认为这项工作“非常酷”。目前，作为密歇根州立大学物理与天文学教授，她致力于研究星系团和重子物质（由质子和中子组成的物质，与暗物质相对），旨在深入了解宇宙的组成及其演化。

“Clusters of galaxies are very large scoops of the universe,” says Donahue, who served as president of the American Astronomical Society from 2018 to 2020. “It’s like taking a sample from the ocean. If you’re trying to find out the average composition of the ocean’s water, you’d want to study as big a scoop as possible.”

“星系团就像是宇宙中非常巨大的样本勺，”曾于2018年至2020年担任美国天文学会主席的多纳休说，“这就像从海洋中取样。如果你想找出海水的平均成分，你会希望尽可能多地取样。”