This morning, as the sun softly filled my room, I scrolled my timeline mindlessly before sleeping and found a good surprise. My favorite novel, Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, was getting its movie adaptation. This book, about the love story between two female astronauts, is my current all-time favorite story. As I am excited to wait for the movie and to reminisce on the story, I couldn’t help to gush on my love to the women who studied the space and moved me deeply. This is my tribute to women astronomers and astrophysicists who have influenced me, alongside my love to the story of Atmosphere. This is a tribute from a wanna-be Earth scientist who fall in love with the Earth even more because of them who studied the space.

Note: This is an interim log, continuously under edit, as it’s a clash of different inspirations in my life.

I was reminded that I am meant for big things

It was early January of 2024. Often with the dawn, I woke up at around 3 AM during those days. I would sleep earlier before 10 PM and found myself waking up at dawn. I didn’t think that it was because of stress. However, after my undergraduate thesis defense, I proved that I was indeed stressed because I had no problem sleeping through the early mornings later on.

During those ungodly hours, I watched Karlina Supelli’s interview with Gita Wirjawan. Her interview didn’t just inform me about new things and sparked new ideas. More than that, she healed me. I cried when she explained her idea of education:

“Anak harus dididik bahwa mereka ada untuk hal yang lebih besar dari mereka.” / “Children should be taught that they are meant for things bigger than themselves.”

“Sastra penting agar kita bisa mengolah rasa dan dapat menjelaskan sesuatu dengan puitis.” / “Literature is important so that we can process feelings and explain something poetically.”

Those words resonated with me. It’s one of those moments when someone verbalizes something that you have been thinking for a long time, but you haven not received any validation about it or found a way to express it.

She’s one of the first women astronomer and philosopher in Indonesia. Inspired by her talks, I found deep appreciation in a well-curated and softly-spoken elaboration as we ponder about the universe and our humanity.

I felt grounded by the sky

Earlier on February 2026, I was working out while listening to a lovely podcast interviewing another Indonesian astronomer, Premana Premadi. They are very soft-spoken and it always heals something in me to reflect about our Earth and universe by their thoughts.

Some pointers from her talk that I held sincerely:

• The sky is breathtaking but it leaves us speechless. There is a sense of helplessness and respect. It made us understand that nature does not need to be controlled.
• Even if we could migrate to another planet, we must still care for Earth because humans aren’t the only ones living here.
• Traditional wisdom acknowledges our limitations and the fact that we cannot change nature. There is a sense of respect for nature—in stark contrast to modern life, which forgets nature once its needs are met.
• It is humanity’s duty to protect what makes us unique: our reason. If not us, then who else?
• The danger of losing access to nature due to pollution: experiencing the beauty of nature is everyone’s right, not just the wealthy. Experiencing the beauty of nature motivates people to protect it.
• True sufficiency lies in sincerity and interconnectedness. When our personal needs are met but those of others are not, our sufficiency is not yet complete.

After ruminating on her thoughts, I realized I love Earth science for the same reason as these astronomers. Many people fall in love with astronomy because they realized how small they are and the fact that the stars are immovable. Instead of forcing to control the objects in the sky, we can only observe them. I guess it has always been the same with me. I end up with what I’m doing right now not just because I love the nature. It’s to also respect and protect the nature: to understand sufficiency and follow its limits.

The astrophysicist who became a climate scientist

While pursuing climate science, I came across a climate scientist named Kate Marvel.

“I trained as an astrophysicist, which is why I know Earth is the only good planet.”

While focusing on the physics of the field, I longed for conversations about dealing with emotions and climate actions. For sure, she was one of my main inspirations on dealing with my feelings while studying climate change. I learned that it’s okay to be emotional in our research, she even made a book about it. She also reminded me that we need to move beyond the physics and advocate for solutions.

Things I learned from a story of two astronauts

Joan was an astronomer and the main voice of the book. I refuse to think that there are people who were not moved by Joan’s view in life. She had too much love within herself, for the universe, the Earth, and the people around her. Here I compiled some of her quotes that I adore from the book:

“Well, we are the stars,” Joan said. “And the stars are us. Every atom in our bodies was once out there. Was once a part of them. To look at the night sky is to look at parts of who you once were, who you may one day be.”

Because the world had decided that to be soft was to be weak, even though in Joan’s experience being soft and flexible was always more durable than being hard and brittle. Admitting you were afraid always took more guts than pretending you weren’t. Being willing to make a mistake got you further than never trying. The world had decided that to be fallible was weak. But we are all fallible. The strong ones are the ones who accept it.

She was overwhelmed with love for him. Love in the sense that she trusted him, and saw all the good in his heart, and cared about him and wanted only good things to ever happen to him. Love in the sense that she would always be on his side, even if he was wrong, in the sense that he was one of the people on this Earth she believed in. And in that moment, the swelling in her heart was unbearable.

A sense of community and a different kind of love

Written on August 20, 2026:

For Joan, NASA was the place where she can belong. She saw the color blue she’s being try to chase and found the people who also understood it. She did find her greatest love, Vanessa, but aside from that, she found the greatest companions in life. Without her romantic pursuit, I know she still found herself grounded as she anchored her love to the people around her. As the time passed, she could keep pursuing the science that she loved and NASA stayed as her home.

When I say I see myself in Joan, I mean it. It’s as if TJR wrote down what I have always wanted to express about love and the universe. However, of course, she wrote something bigger than that: new perspective and words that I could never pull out from my life.

I wanted what Joan had in NASA, but I realized that ICTP was my NASA and now I’m exactly at the end of this sweet time.

I want to preserve a love like what Joan had for Griff and mostly her other colleagues–but the people I met in ICTP were my Griffs. It’s William as we spent evenings working on our research and grabbed dinner. It’s Bee and Burak who offered me tea during the night as we discussed anything in our life. It’s Cedric and Nar who I spent my days with. It’s Lucy and Ari who I could discuss with after our climate classes–and so much other people. I only want good things to happen to them and be on their side when they need it.

I want to love like how Joan let go when she thought she would lose her greatest love. In shock, she felt grateful and knew that it will make her more eager to live. However, I had a small grasp of it with my goodbyes. I felt it as I said goodbye to my dad quitely while being faraway from him. It’s also when I tried to be strong while saying goodbyes to my friends in Trieste. Truly, through the years they have been in this world, I could only be grateful to have them in my time here too.

To find someone who makes the world makes sense to you

With humbleness, I acknowledge my minimal understanding of astronomy, the space and our universe outside of the Blue Planet. Vanessa once said “The whole sky makes sense to me now because of you” to Joan. I know it’s too much to ask for the Joan to my Vanessa, but for now I’m content to derive inspiration from these women. If I could not have that, at least I knew now the deep love I have to live and to comprehend this Earth.