Ask the Expert: Regina Jorgenson ’98

Alumni, Arches

What to Expect from the Sky in 2025

After studying physics in the Honors Program at Puget Sound, Regina Jorgenson ’98 dedicated her astrophysics career to exploring space, specifically galaxy formation and evolution. “I love astronomy because it has a built-in time machine,” says Jorgenson, who also has master’s and doctorate degrees in physics. “The farther away you look in space, the farther back in time you go.” Jorgenson served as the director of astronomy for the Maria Mitchell Association and the director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket, Mass., since 2016, before recently joining the faculty at Cal Poly Humboldt in Northern California.

MORE NORTHERN LIGHTS

The sun is working through its 11-year cycle and will still be in its most active phase, or “solar maximum,” in 2025. The resultant geomagnetic activity created the aurora borealis many enjoyed in October, and it is expected to bring more northern lights in the coming months. Jorgenson advises using a camera’s long exposure to best capture the vibrant colors of the light show.

TO THE MOON AND BACK

Astronomers are abuzz about the Artemis II moon mission scheduled for September. “They won’t land on the moon,” says Jorgenson, explaining that the crew will instead orbit the moon and test systems. If all goes well, Artemis III may return people to the moon, including the first woman, in 2026.

THE NEXT SOLAR ECLIPSE

Jorgenson notes that North America will have to wait a couple of decades for a repeat of last spring’s total solar eclipse. And the next one—in August 2044—will only be visible in three U.S. states: Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

GROUND-BREAKING NEW TELESCOPE

In August, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will begin surveying the entire night sky every few nights—providing astronomers with an unprecedented dataset poised to answer long-standing mysteries about everything from exploding stars to the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

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