Interview With Prof. Dr. Ethem Derman

On November 12 we went to a conference of Prof. Dr Ethem Derman’s about astronomy, organized by a Turkish science website Fizikist. After the conference, we had a chance to have a little chat and do a mini-interview with him.
We asked various international amateur astronomy groups their questions, choose some of them and asked him for you! Thanks to everyone who send their questions and thanks to Dr Derman for sparing time for us :) 

First of all, who is Dr Derman?
He was born and raised in Kayseri. He started studying mathematics at İstanbul University. After he realized his love for astronomy and double majored in astronomy. He completed his Ph.D. in Italy Advanced School of Physics and then he started working at Ankara University. He became a professor in 1995. After working 30 years in Ankara University he retired in 2012. He still meets with young people and teaches astronomy these days.

What is your advice for those who want to study astronomy? As an astronomer will I face any difficulties without an astrophysics degree? 

If you are dedicated to being an astronomer you need to accept two harsh truths. First, you are not going to make money or be famous. Scientist are the people who are passionate about science and they are not expecting money or fame from it, they are doing their job for love of science.
Secondly, you will need to become a lifelong student. Many people think that when they are done with the university and start their career they learned enough thing about their profession. But an astronomer, or scientist in general, always has to make new researches and has to learn new information. In science, there are new things discovered each day, new things to learn each day.
Astronomy has many different branches after undergraduate, you can specialize in any of them, there is no obligation about having a degree in astrophysics.

The Big Bang theory is the famous theory among scientist nowadays, but what is the next physical theory about the Universe? 

Each science discipline has its own hot topics and The Big Bang theory is popular among cosmologists. As an astronomer, I could say Exoplanets are getting more popular each day, especially the ones which could support life.

What are the problems we see while trying to make to the Mars?

There are plenty of difficulties we will face while we try to get to the Mars. The vehicle, time, energy, cosmic rays are the biggest problems as you all know but let's say we somehow solved these problems, putting five-man inside a small cabin for 250 days and giving them exact same food -most likely lettuce- would drive them insane.

What is the Zodiac in Astronomy?

There are 88  constellations we can observe. As Earth orbits the sun, the sun appears to pass in front of different constellations. Each month the sun appears in 12 different constellations and we call that area ''Zodiac''.
But let's say you were born the sun was passing by Scorpius constellation and pseudoscience says you are affected by the alignment of the stars and their gravities so that your sign is Scorpio and it will affect your personality. It's completely different thing and not about astronomy nor science.
Some people are trying to make money by promising you to tell your future by looking at those stars.
Science is not about fooling yourself, in astronomy, we look to the past of the universe.