0:00

at

0:00

kroger we want our fresh produce

0:02

to meet your expectations to

0:04

make sure a bad apple won't spoil the

0:06

whole bunch we do up to a twenty seven

0:08

point inspection on our fruits and veggies

0:11

we check for things like sunburns and scarring

0:13

making sure you only get the crunchy is to in

0:16

fact only the best produce like juicy

0:18

pairs zesty oranges and crisp

0:20

carrots reach ourselves because when it

0:23

comes to fresh are higher standards

0:25

mean fresh produce kroger

0:27

fresh for everyone

0:35

exo planets are planets outside

0:38

of the solar system and

0:40

we know today for the first time

0:42

ever with statistical certainty

0:44

that they're more planets and the milky way

0:46

galaxy than there are stars

0:49

each star hosts at least

0:51

one planet that astronomer

0:53

an astrophysicist munasaha alum

0:56

for

0:56

centuries philosophers had been

0:58

postulating that there are many world

1:01

out there in the universe many of which

1:03

are like our own today

1:04

as part of our scientific work on

1:06

exo planets she uses data

1:08

from the hubble and james webb space telescopes

1:11

the mana kr observatories in hawaii

1:14

and the las campanas observatory

1:17

in chile so

1:18

centuries ago and galileo

1:20

was looking at the moons of jupiter

1:22

through his telescopes he was looking through the

1:24

i piece of those instruments today

1:27

we're using much more powerful telescopes

1:30

at national observatories that are the size

1:32

of a school bus and so we

1:34

aren't looking through the i pieces of those

1:37

instruments but instead we

1:39

are operating

1:40

several computers that are connected

1:43

to the telescope in what's called the telescope

1:45

control room and that

1:47

is how we control where the telescope is

1:49

pointing what is looking at an for how

1:51

long

1:54

i'm dot i ride lawn and you're listening to

1:56

overheard a show where we eavesdrop

1:59

on the world congress a we have here at Nat

2:01

Geo and follow them to the edges

2:03

of our big, weird, beautiful world. This

2:05

week our guest is National Geographic

2:08

Explorer, Munaza Alam, a

2:10

postdoctoral researcher at the Carnegie

2:12

Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington,

2:14

DC. Coming up, what it's like

2:16

stargazing for the next Earth-like planet,

2:19

plus what the month of Ramadan,

2:21

the Islamic Holy Month of fasting, means

2:24

to Munaza and her family. I

2:26

was born and raised in New York City, but

2:28

my family is South

2:30

Asian. My mom is from India and my dad is from

2:32

Pakistan. A lot of the traditions

2:34

that we have during Ramadan are

2:37

based in South Asian foods or typical

2:39

South Asian traditions

2:42

for Ramadan. For example,

2:44

we eat a lot of bokore, fried

2:47

gram flour fritters, and fruit

2:49

jat, which is a mixed fruit kind of

2:52

in a tasty liquid

2:55

of juices, if that is when we

2:57

break the fast at sunset. We'll

2:59

hear all about

3:00

Munaza's work with stars, her

3:02

Ramadan traditions, and how she embraces

3:05

the pre-dawn meal of Sahar, Sahur,

3:07

or Sahri right after the break.

3:11

But first, fuel your curiosity

3:14

with a free one-month trial subscription

3:16

to National Geographic Digital. You'll

3:18

have unlimited access on any device,

3:20

anywhere, ad-free with our app that lets

3:22

you download stories to read offline.

3:25

Explore every page ever published with a century

3:28

of digital archives at your fingertips. Check

3:31

it all out for free at nacho.com

3:33

slash explore more.

3:36

As if the McChrissy

3:38

couldn't get any better, Bacon

3:40

and Ranch just entered the chat.

3:43

The Bacon Ranch McChrissy, available

3:45

and participating with Donald's for a limited time.

3:48

Ba da ba ba

3:49

ba.

3:51

At Kroger, we want our fresh produce

3:53

to meet your expectations. To

3:55

make sure a bad apple won't spoil the

3:57

whole bunch, we do up to a 27

4:00

point inspection on our fruits and veggies

4:02

we check for things like sunburns and scarring

4:04

making sure you only get the crunchy is apples

4:07

in fact only the best produce like

4:09

juicy pairs zesty oranges

4:11

and crisp carrots reach ourselves

4:13

because when it comes to fresh are higher

4:15

standards mean fresh produce

4:17

kroger

4:18

fresh for everyone

4:25

it's

4:25

the month of ramadan and as a

4:27

practicing muslim you observe this tradition

4:29

of fasting so i'll say ramadan

4:31

mubarak federal attic and what

4:34

is right on mean to you to

4:35

me ramadan means family it

4:38

means faith it means food

4:41

and and it's a tradition that keeps me

4:43

rooted in me and who i am

4:45

and where i come from no matter where i go

4:53

so a few weeks ago we ask you to keep

4:55

an audio diary during ramadan and

4:58

we're gonna hear the first clip which

5:00

begins before sunrise when you

5:02

rise to prepare for the fast their many different

5:05

ways of describing this predawn

5:07

meal some would pronounce it

5:09

as so so who are i

5:11

believe you pronounce of say hurry tell

5:13

us a live at more about that before we hear the clip

5:16

so i would say said he because i am south

5:18

asian and my family speaks urdu but

5:20

in arabic is called so food and

5:22

you say so

5:23

hard because the speak farsi so

5:26

this this is a word that has an arabic route

5:28

but in languages that have on

5:31

many words that are derived from arabic

5:33

like farsi and like or do the

5:35

words are similar but slightly different

5:37

so that's why we have slightly different words for

5:39

the same thing so

5:41

let's listen to the first clip

5:44

it is for thirty am on the

5:46

first day of amazon and we're

5:48

getting ready for our city predawn

5:51

meal on the menu for

5:53

today is fema roti

5:55

and to kinda so that's

5:58

ground beef of bread

6:00

and a sunny side up egg prepared

6:03

by my lovely mother i

6:06

haven't decided yet if i'm

6:08

gonna go back to bed after this me

6:10

also i haven't neither that yet but

6:13

let's see what the day brings

6:16

ramadan

6:16

is the ninth month of the

6:18

islamic calendar which is a lunar calendar

6:21

that has three hundred and fifty four

6:23

days because the

6:25

islamic calendar is a lunar calendar it's

6:27

slightly shorter than our solar calendar

6:30

which is three hundred and sixty five days and

6:32

so because of this difference of about ten

6:34

or eleven days the the

6:36

month of ramadan does not fall at the

6:38

same time each year so

6:41

some years it'll fall in the summertime others

6:43

in the winter and that's kind of

6:45

helpful especially

6:46

if you're fasting in the

6:48

the heat of july but

6:51

d the tradition during this month

6:53

is

6:53

that muslims around the world are going

6:55

too fast for this for month which is

6:57

about twenty nine or thirty days and

7:00

the fasting for each day takes place

7:02

from sunrise to sunset and

7:04

the practice is that during the day

7:07

muslims will abstain from food

7:09

and drink so no

7:11

water and know meals

7:13

at all so only meals before dawn

7:15

and after sunset

7:18

when it comes to fasting islamic philosopher

7:21

say it was a nasty rights that the

7:23

fast the bestows a spiritual

7:25

perfume upon the human soul who's

7:27

fragrance can be perceived long

7:30

after the period of abstinence has come

7:32

to an end that ultimately

7:34

it is only a certain degree of restraint

7:36

from the material objects of the senses

7:39

that makes the senses balanced one

7:41

such practice of restraint is fasting

7:44

during the month of ramadan i

7:46

grew up with say it was a nice in his family

7:49

he was my late mother lowly bath yours

7:51

teacher throughout my life my

7:53

understanding of the premise of ramadan

7:55

comes through lollies work on or onyx

7:57

i college he

7:59

that ramadan

8:00

is grounded in spirituality, setting

8:02

goals and a drive towards growth

8:04

and transformation. That is

8:06

not to accept prescribed fasting only

8:09

as a religious duty, but rather a challenge,

8:12

as a chance for growth, instead of

8:14

an experiment which limits oneself.

8:17

If you were to step back and think

8:20

about the bigger picture of Ramadan

8:22

is also a commemoration of the story

8:24

of the Quran, which is the sacred text of

8:26

Islam being revealed to the Prophet

8:28

Muhammad. Chapter 13, Thunder.

8:31

That's my mom, Laleh Bakhtiar, reciting

8:34

from the Sublime Quran. It

8:36

is he who exalted the heavens without

8:39

any pillars so that you see them.

8:42

Then he turned his attention to above

8:45

the throne and he caused to

8:47

become subservient the sun

8:49

and the moon, each running for

8:51

a term that was determined. He

8:54

manages the command. He explains

8:57

distinctly the signs so

8:59

that perhaps of the meeting with

9:01

your Lord, you would be certain. And

9:04

it is he who stretched out the earth

9:06

and made on it firm mountains and

9:09

rivers. Alrighty,

9:19

it is midday about 1.30pm

9:22

and I'm feeling okay, feeling

9:24

good. Definitely not that

9:26

hungry or thirsty, surprisingly. But

9:29

I didn't go back to sleep this morning after Sa'idi,

9:31

so I'm feeling like a nap is definitely

9:34

going to be in my future. Just

9:37

had a productive morning. I

9:41

read the first sippada of

9:43

the Quran and I took

9:46

a walk with my sister and then started my work

9:48

day and just

9:48

started crossing off

9:50

tasks. What

9:54

are some of the prayers that you share

9:56

during Ramadan or how important is

9:58

the role that prayer has?

10:00

during the month.

10:01

So during the month Muslims are encouraged

10:05

and expected to spend more time

10:07

in worship and in prayer. So one

10:09

of the things that I try to do is to read

10:11

the Quran, to

10:14

complete one recitation of the Quran, which is long,

10:17

but it's split into 30 sibaras

10:20

or parts. And so one

10:22

thing that I try to do is read one part each day.

10:25

So that is an extra thing that I do. And then

10:27

on the weekends we go to the mosque to

10:29

break the iftah or to break the fast. And we

10:31

read

10:35

the dharavi prayers, which are

10:37

a longer set of optional

10:39

prayers that

10:40

are said during the month of Ramadan.

10:42

And what is it like balancing your career

10:44

as a scientist and fasting for 29

10:46

days? Where before you wake up before

10:48

sunrise

10:49

and

10:51

eat something and then you don't drink or eat

10:53

until after sunset? I

10:55

think that it can get challenging

10:57

at times. I remember I first started

11:00

fasting for the full month when I was about 18 years

11:02

old and that was the end of high

11:05

school, beginning of college. And sometimes

11:07

if I had exams I noticed I was a little

11:09

bit more focused on some days

11:11

and a bit less focused on others. It

11:14

kind of depends on what you eat in the morning

11:16

and how that sustains you for the rest of the day.

11:18

I think for me

11:21

after a few days I get used to not

11:23

drinking and not eating during the daytime.

11:25

But the thing that gets worse over time is

11:28

waking up early and

11:29

staying awake late. So

11:32

the lack of sleep is the thing that I think gets

11:35

me the most.

11:36

We're gonna listen to another audio clip. We

11:38

broke the fast with dates from

11:41

Mecca that someone brought back from a recent trip

11:44

and pokore or

11:46

fried gram flour fritters with

11:50

spinach and potatoes and onions that

11:52

were very tasty and was definitely very grateful

11:54

for that meal.

11:56

You mentioned

11:58

earlier iftar.

12:00

and that is when the day of fast ends

12:02

at sunset. What is Iftar

12:04

and how do you break your fast?

12:06

So Iftar is the meal that we eat

12:08

to break our fast after sunset. And

12:12

traditionally, we eat a date, the

12:14

fruit, and have a glass of water to

12:16

break the fast. And then after that, we

12:18

have a bit of an Iftar kind of snack.

12:21

Since my family is South Asian, we have bokore,

12:23

which are fried gram flour

12:26

fritters. And we can make

12:28

them of different types, either with potatoes

12:30

or with onions or spinach or some combination

12:33

of all of those. I'm getting hungry

12:35

just thinking about it. And

12:38

we have fruitjat, which is kind of a mix

12:40

of different fruits with some guava paste

12:42

and some tasty juice.

12:46

And that's kind of the snack that we have

12:48

first. And then we'll break

12:50

to say our maghrib or sunset prayers,

12:53

and then we'll come back for dinner. And

12:55

dinner is kind of dictated by our cravings

12:57

throughout the day.

12:58

Oh, interesting. Yeah, how about tea

13:01

or halwa?

13:02

Is that a South Asian tradition? So

13:06

tea is definitely a big one. And

13:08

that's usually a post-dinner thing,

13:10

some odd switch where we

13:13

caffeinate at night. But

13:17

we will have some halwas, different

13:19

types we have, like gajjika

13:21

halwa, which is like a carrot sweet. There's

13:25

also kir, which is more of like a rice pudding.

13:28

But we don't have that every day. We try to be a little

13:30

bit healthy.

13:31

And Ramadan itself

13:34

ends with Eid, one of the most important

13:36

holidays for Muslims. Tell us a little bit

13:38

about Eid al-Fidr, how I

13:41

would pronounce it. And that

13:43

comes this year towards the end

13:45

of April.

13:46

Yes, so the holiday that

13:49

that Ramadan ends with is called Eid al-Fidr.

13:52

That's how we'll say it in Urdu. And

13:54

it's a celebration of the end

13:56

of the month of Ramadan. And one

13:59

of the things that is important to highlight that this

14:01

is one of two Muslim holidays.

14:03

The other one is called Eid al-Adza. And

14:05

that is actually the bigger holiday, but

14:08

Eid al-Fitr gets more attention, I think, because

14:10

it's more visible or noticeable when

14:13

colleagues are not eating lunch

14:16

or drinking water during the workday. So

14:19

I think that's why Eid al-Fitr is a bit more popular,

14:21

but it's actually the

14:23

smaller holiday.

14:24

Talk a little bit about the spiritual dimension

14:27

of Ramadan when you're fasting, a time

14:30

to contemplate the

14:33

purpose of life. You could be very self-reflective

14:36

and think about your place in the

14:38

universe. And it's kind of interesting moment

14:41

to pause and not only think about

14:43

some of the more materialistic sides

14:46

of life.

14:47

Yeah, that's another big thing with fasting.

14:49

It's not just giving up food and drink

14:51

and kind of physical

14:53

pleasures. There is also the aspect

14:56

in giving something up. How do we reflect on

14:58

what we have and who we are and what

15:00

our habits are and our

15:02

place in the universe?

15:05

The famous philosopher Muhammad al-Qazali

15:08

wrote of Ramadan some 800 years

15:10

ago, famously noting that attachment

15:12

to this world to an extent which goes beyond

15:15

moderation holds the believer back

15:17

because excessive attachment to the world

15:20

increases the passions like lust and

15:22

anger and reduces the possibility

15:25

of the eternal preservation of self.

15:36

So let's now focus on your

15:38

current research. You focus on detecting

15:41

and characterizing exoplanets. You've

15:43

talked about how you use space-based

15:46

and large ground-based telescopes. That

15:48

sounds like so much fun. So maybe

15:50

just tell us what an average day is like for

15:53

you.

15:53

So most of the days during the year

15:56

I don't have a glamorous job. I sit

15:58

at my desk at my computer. computer

16:00

and analyze data that

16:02

is taken from telescopes. A

16:04

couple of times a year, I get

16:07

to go observing myself

16:09

to observatories in exciting places like

16:12

the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile or

16:14

the Mauna Kea observatories in Hawaii. And

16:17

that's where I think I really get to feel like a

16:19

proper observational astronomer. So

16:22

I flip my days where I stay up at

16:24

night and I sleep all day. And when

16:26

I stay up at night, I am working

16:28

in the telescope control room, working

16:31

on basically a wall of computers that are

16:33

telling the telescope exactly where

16:35

to point and what to observe and

16:37

for how long. These

16:39

are the days where I'm reminded

16:42

what it means to be an astronomer

16:45

because when I work with space-based data,

16:47

that data is taken on a queue.

16:50

So it's scheduled beforehand and

16:53

the telescope is in space so we don't travel to

16:55

the telescope. But the data basically

16:57

comes in and then because it's in

16:59

space, it's observing all the time. So data

17:01

is constantly being taken and being downlinked

17:04

to Earth where we can then download

17:06

our data and get cracking, analyzing it.

17:09

And so I think that having the combination

17:11

of working with space-based data and ground-based

17:14

data keeps me rooted in that feeling

17:16

of actually going kind of classically

17:18

or traditionally observing at observatories.

17:22

Amazing. Let's say

17:24

it's one of the days where you're

17:26

working with the telescopes and you are looking

17:29

for that Earth-like planet. What

17:31

is the science behind

17:33

what you look for? Yeah, so what we're

17:36

looking for when we make these observations

17:38

is, so first off, we time them very carefully.

17:42

We time these observations very carefully so

17:44

that they occur when the planet is passing

17:47

in front of or transiting its

17:49

host star from our line of sight here on

17:51

Earth. So when the planet

17:54

is

17:54

transiting its star or in front of its star,

17:57

we can't actually see the planet itself. has

18:00

these systems are so far away and

18:03

the stars much much brighter than the planet

18:05

itself it's a little bit like trying to look

18:07

at a firefly next to a bright streetlamp

18:10

you won't be able to see it because it's so small and

18:12

not as bright so we make these combined

18:14

light observations were

18:16

when the planet is in front of the star

18:19

it's gonna cast a shadow on

18:21

the star and so if we measure the

18:24

brightness of the star over time

18:26

we will record a little dip in the

18:28

brightness of the star that corresponds

18:30

to when the planet is passing

18:32

in front of it really interesting what

18:35

other data points are you looking

18:37

for when you look for that earth like planet

18:39

the atmosphere yeah so we can take

18:41

the trains it's one step further and

18:44

learn about the atmospheres of those planets

18:47

by observing transits a different wavelengths

18:49

or colors of light because

18:52

depending on what wavelength you're looking at

18:54

the planet's atmosphere can appear more

18:57

or less opaque and

18:59

since we can't see the planet with this translates

19:01

to is the shadow that

19:03

the planet cats may be a bit larger

19:05

where the atmosphere is more opaque and the look a

19:07

bit smaller where at the

19:09

atmosphere is less opaque so this

19:11

roughly translates to ah changes

19:14

in the size of the planet at different colors

19:16

of light and when we break that down

19:19

though we've links where the planet's atmosphere

19:22

is more opaque correspond

19:24

to absorption from atoms and

19:27

molecules that are present in the atmosphere

19:29

of the planet so we can make these

19:31

observations and learn not only

19:33

what the atmosphere is made

19:36

of what atoms and molecules we

19:38

can also learn if there are clouds

19:40

or hayes is in the atmosphere

19:42

of the planet so

19:43

when you have a break and

19:45

are watching a star wars movie and

19:48

your see what all of you

19:50

know hollywood depicts these exo

19:52

planets look like is that what it looks like

19:55

so this is interesting because we've done

19:57

some especially for like press releases and

19:59

kind of

20:00

public engagement

20:02

worked with graphic designers

20:04

to

20:05

visualize what these worlds would

20:08

look like because from these observations

20:10

we have discovered some pretty exotic

20:12

planets in our galaxy. I'm

20:14

talking planets with raindrops

20:17

made of corundum which is the material that

20:19

rubies and sapphires are made of. So these kind

20:21

of ruby raindrop planets. We've

20:23

discovered planets that have, that

20:26

might rain like molten glass. They

20:30

sound like science fiction worlds but they exist

20:32

within our own galaxy and we've measured

20:35

their compositions and know what

20:38

their atmospheres are like. And

20:40

so depending on how bright the

20:42

planet is you may have like a magenta sky

20:45

or a purplish sky and it's

20:47

just crazy to think about how different these

20:50

exoplanets are compared to the

20:52

worlds within our solar system.

20:54

Absolutely. So Monaza that means

20:56

we're going to need a lot more

20:58

National Geographic explorers to find

21:01

all of these planets, right? Absolutely.

21:04

We're realizing the field of exoplanets is

21:06

growing and growing and we're realizing that this is necessary

21:09

because we're getting so much data with so

21:11

many rich things to look into. Yeah,

21:14

and we definitely need more explorers out there. When

21:16

I went back and I was talking to you earlier,

21:19

you talked about during your PhD

21:21

thesis at Harvard, you primarily

21:24

used the Hubble telescope to get your data

21:26

and you were actually saying that so much changed

21:28

just a year later when

21:31

the James Webb telescope was put into

21:33

use. Tell us a little bit more about

21:36

your research and how

21:38

this new telescope is changing

21:40

the landscape.

21:41

So my research focuses on

21:43

studying the atmospheres of

21:45

exoplanets using observations from

21:48

space-based and large ground-based telescopes.

21:51

And I think that both are very useful for

21:53

making these observations. But one

21:55

key difference between space-based telescopes

21:58

and ground-based telescopes is

22:00

with the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb

22:02

Space Telescope. These are telescopes

22:05

that we've launched into outer space

22:07

and so when we're making our observations

22:10

we don't have to look through the atmosphere

22:12

of the Earth in order to peer

22:15

into what these worlds are like.

22:17

I finished my PhD about a year and a half

22:19

ago and I was primarily working with data

22:21

from the Hubble Space Telescope and that was

22:24

some of the best data that we could get to

22:26

measure exoplanet atmospheres. But

22:29

on Christmas Day 2021 the James

22:32

Webb Space Telescope or JWST was

22:34

launched into space and

22:37

it's now about a million miles away from

22:39

the Earth

22:40

and it is

22:42

vastly improving and revolutionizing

22:45

what is possible to observe. The

22:48

reason is that the James

22:50

Webb Space Telescope is huge.

22:52

It's about the size of a tennis court and

22:55

it is extremely stable

22:58

so the data that we take

23:00

is not affected by the the movements

23:02

or the shaking of the telescope itself. It's

23:05

also very precise so any

23:07

measurements that we make have really small

23:10

uncertainties, really small error bars

23:12

so we have a better sense of

23:14

what we're measuring and we are

23:18

collecting more light

23:19

because the telescope is so much bigger. So

23:22

that enables us to get a better resolution

23:25

or a better kind of crispness to

23:27

the data that we are taking and

23:29

on top of that

23:30

it can observe at a very wide wavelength

23:33

range about 10 times bigger than

23:35

what Hubble could observe.

23:41

What was it like co-hosting a science

23:44

podcast for kids? You were part of the first

23:46

season of Nat Geo's podcast

23:48

called How We Explore. The

23:50

show is all about being a scientist in the

23:52

field and shows what it's like starting

23:55

a career in science. Let's listen to a clip.

23:58

I didn't have any interest in astronomy when I was growing

24:00

up. I grew up in New York City where

24:02

there's a lot of light pollution, so I didn't have

24:04

a backyard telescope or anything like that. But

24:07

I was always a very curious kid. I

24:10

constantly asked my parents why and

24:12

how. I think it was actually pretty annoying

24:14

to them. But I also think that it's

24:16

this curiosity that led me to become a scientist

24:19

because asking why and how is a major

24:21

part of my job doing research.

24:24

So I had a great experience hosting the

24:26

How We Explore podcast. I actually

24:28

am a very visual person, so I don't listen

24:30

to a ton of podcasts. I don't have any

24:33

series that I listen to regularly. And so

24:35

my kind of fun fact post

24:37

How We Explore is that I've been on more

24:39

podcasts than I've listened to, which

24:41

is kind of funny to think about. But

24:44

it was just so wonderful. I love the

24:46

book No Boundaries and I love the idea of

24:48

expanding the work that Gabby

24:50

Salazar and Claire Fiesler did in

24:53

collecting those interviews

24:54

and packaging it in another

24:56

way that could be helpful and useful for for

24:58

kids. And thanks to our colleague

25:00

Emily Everhart for all her work on that series.

25:03

It was based on a book and

25:05

you were brought in as one of the co-hosts. What

25:08

are, what kind of reactions did

25:10

you get from kids and parents about the series? The

25:12

podcast was very successful

25:15

and I think parents really

25:17

appreciate that the podcast really focused

25:19

on featuring all women, both the women that we

25:21

talked about as well as co-hosted by two

25:23

women,

25:24

myself and Gabby Salazar,

25:26

co-author of the No Boundaries book.

25:29

And one of the exciting things is that

25:32

each episode explores all of the ways

25:34

that young kids and especially young

25:36

girls can contribute

25:38

to moving science forward.

25:40

What are kids curious about when it comes

25:42

to National Geographic? What do you think? I

25:45

think that a lot of the

25:47

National Geographic explorers have

25:49

these quote-unquote dream jobs that seem

25:51

not practical or not like

25:54

a reality. And I think that

25:56

a lot of the people that I meet through National Geographic

25:58

have jobs that I've heard.

26:00

heard my my

26:01

peers when i was four or five

26:03

or six say but they

26:05

are these are adults that have these jobs

26:08

on and i think that it it shows

26:10

that these jobs can

26:12

be realities and they are rooted in

26:14

to ya city and exploration

26:17

about the natural world

26:19

and how did you become a national

26:21

geographic explorer so

26:23

i was a college student when

26:25

i applied for the national geographic

26:27

young explorers grand to was back in two thousand

26:29

and fifteen and ah

26:31

the grant covers research conservation

26:34

and exploration and i

26:36

needed support for a research trip

26:38

this is when i was working on an undergraduate

26:40

astronomy research project and i

26:42

had the good fortune to travel to an observatory

26:45

to obtain data for my research but

26:47

he didn't have the funding to travel to that observatory

26:50

it was las campanas observatory in chile so

26:53

on we

26:54

applied for an acl young spores

26:56

grant and thankfully were awarded it so

26:58

you're able to ah go to chile

27:00

and that was my first experience there you're

27:03

very much at the early

27:05

part of your career there's so much

27:07

more

27:08

probably that energizes

27:10

you about what you can discover yourself

27:13

oh what is it that if we were

27:15

to talk ten years from today you

27:17

hope that you've accomplished

27:19

ten years from now i hope that i really spearheaded

27:22

our understanding of giant planets

27:25

out there in the milky way so planets that are

27:27

similar to jupiter and size

27:29

and get composition in terms

27:31

of being gas giant planets that are bit

27:33

closer and i think that with

27:35

the james webb space telescope we can really

27:38

get an in depth understanding of these

27:40

targets since they're the biggest

27:42

and brightest planets and the

27:44

easiest to observe because of that and

27:46

i hope that i will have also contributed to our understanding

27:49

of smaller planets both the earth

27:51

sized kind of rocky planets as well as

27:53

these these planets that are intermediate

27:56

in size between earth and neptune called

27:58

sub neptune they're super that

28:01

it turns out are actually the most common type

28:03

of planet in the galaxy but we have nothing like that in

28:05

our solar system. So I'm involved in some programs

28:08

that are taking data now with

28:10

the James Webb Space Telescope. We're starting to take

28:13

the most detailed look at their atmospheres

28:15

to date and I hope that these studies

28:18

are going to lay the foundations for understanding

28:21

the most common type of planet out there.

28:23

Are you listening to?

28:26

So I am not but I

28:28

know there's some folks in SETI and stuff

28:30

that are working on things like that.

28:33

We'd love to end our interview with

28:35

this last audio clip you shared with us

28:37

from your day of fasting. This

28:40

is close to the end of the evening when you've already

28:42

broken your fast, you've had your meal. Alrighty,

28:46

we are done with fast

28:48

number one. It is almost 10 p.m.

28:51

and we just got back from the mosque where we broke

28:53

our fast and said our prayers. I

28:55

think overall this first day has been

28:58

good. I was feeling

29:00

energized, definitely a little bit sleepy in the afternoon

29:02

but nothing

29:03

a nap couldn't fix. I think

29:05

one of the special things about Ramadan

29:07

is that I always use this time

29:10

to be really mindful of the

29:12

way that I spend my time and

29:15

reflect on what I'm grateful for and

29:17

so that's something that I did today and

29:20

definitely am looking forward to doing every

29:22

other day this month. I think

29:24

we are off to a great start but for

29:26

now I am tired and

29:29

ready to go to bed so that I can wake

29:32

up tomorrow morning and do it

29:33

all over again. How

29:37

do you like ending your nights during

29:39

Ramadan?

29:40

I love to have a sweet and a glass of

29:42

milk or a cup of tea and just

29:44

relax in my pajamas. A day

29:47

of fasting is exhausting, I've lost

29:49

a bit of sleep and so that moment

29:51

of relaxing with two of my favorite

29:54

things, a warm beverage and a sweet treat,

29:56

is my favorite way to end the night.

29:59

We've

29:59

been speaking

30:00

with Munaza Alam, a National

30:02

Geographic explorer and postdoctoral

30:05

researcher at the Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory

30:08

in Washington, D.C. Thank

30:10

you so much for joining us, and once again,

30:12

Ramadan Mubarak.

30:14

It was great being on Overhood.

30:20

To read more about Munaza's work on her

30:22

website, munazaalam.github.io,

30:24

that's M-U-N-A-Z-Z-A-A-L-A-M.G-I-T-H-U-B.io. Also

30:37

check out our digital stories, Why Ramadan

30:40

is the Most Sacred Month in Islamic Culture

30:42

and Five Changes to the Lifestyle of Muslims

30:45

during Ramadan on nagio.com. This

30:48

week's Overhood episode is produced by Hans

30:51

DelSue, who also sound-designed this

30:53

episode and composed our theme song.

30:56

Our senior producers are Brian Gutierrez

30:58

and Jacob Pinter. Our senior editor

31:00

is Eli Chen. Our manager of audio

31:03

is Carlo Wills. Our photo editor

31:05

is Julie Howe. This podcast

31:07

is a production of National Geographic Partners.

31:10

The Walt Disney Company is a majority owner

31:12

of National Geographic Media. Michael

31:15

Tribble is the vice president of integrated

31:17

storytelling. Nathan Lomp is

31:20

National

31:20

Geographic's editor-in-chief. And

31:22

I'm Dhavar Ardalan, executive producer

31:24

of audio at National Geographic. Thanks

31:27

for listening.