In 2009, I was awarded a NASA Space Grant Fellowship, which allowed me to conduct astronomical research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. Under the supervision of Dr. Raghvendra Sahai, I analyzed UV data from the GALEX space telescope. We discovered an extended structure around the late carbon star IRC+10216, known as an "astrosphere" (analogous to the Sun's heliosphere). By analyzing and modeling the termination shock, we were able to make a number of deductions about the astrosphere - notably, that the circumstellar envelope extended more than twice as far as was previously thought, and that the shape of the bow shock can be understood as a consequence of the star's supersonic motion through the interstellar medium. In 2010, we published these results in an article in The Astrophysical Journal.
