Sandra Faber

“It's a blessing in a scientific career - the almost daily thrill of scientific discovery.”

“I was the kind of kid who liked omnivorously almost all kinds of science - rock collections, fossils - and I like leaves, I like plants, and I like biology.”

“The realization that baryonic matter is only a trace component of the universe revealed our understanding of the cosmos as shockingly incomplete and was one of the milestones that ushered in the era of modern cosmology.”

“I don't recall my parents ever steering me toward or away from science. It was more that I was steered toward learning and excellence in the classroom.”

“In little localized pockets, the universe is capable of building some beautiful complexity.”

“I was born in Boston, but I moved to Cleveland when I was three.”

“I take comfort in the fact that it is a beautiful universe, and we belong here and that we fit. This is our home.”

“I was lonely as a kid. Since I had no siblings, I spent a lot of time by myself and a lot of time reading.”

“We've been given the gift of a billion years of cosmic time, and we should not screw it up. But at the rate we're using up our planet's natural resources and fouling our own nest means we're not going to last a billion years.”

“Far from feeling dwarfed by the vast reaches and energy of the cosmos, what we really learn is that we are the most remarkable and complicated product of cosmic evolution, and our potential is unlimited.”

“My favorite galaxy of all is called the Sombrero, NGC 4594. It's an amazing galaxy that is really two galaxies in one.”

“There are some galaxies that not only teach us things but are just gorgeously beautiful to look at. My favorite example is the Antenne, which is a pair of colliding galaxies.”

“Hubble is unique. Nothing else can do what it can do. Once it's gone, we're going to be paralyzed.”

“Antarctica is a paradise compared to Mars.”

“You could think of the galaxy as a sort of stove with lots of pots on it, and the pots are the interstellar medium, like a chicken broth getting stronger with every reduction. Every time a supernova goes off and sends its heavy elements out into the interstellar medium, we cook up a stew that's better and better for solar systems and life.”

“There are kind of two kinds of awards you can get as a scientist. One is Nobel-like in character: it's for one big thing, for a big revolutionary discovery. And it's wonderfully well known, and of course every scientist would love to get a Nobel prize. And there's a few other similar awards. They're for individual blockbuster discoveries.”

“Very few astronomers will be mourned with the same degree of love and admiration as Vera Rubin.”

“I think it's amazing that the entire community of astronomy has done what it's done. We've been able to deduce the nature of time and space and where we all came from. It's the most amazing detective story in history.”

“We're on our own on spaceship Earth. So we have to solve our own problems.”

“The origin of galaxies is one of the fundamental questions of astronomy, and that's what I've been studying.”