For Tonima Tasnim, rolling blackouts were the best time to look up at the stars.

Growing up in Dhaka’s Badda, she recalls, “Back then there weren’t many high-rise buildings. The city looked very bright at night, but when the power went out and everything around us turned dark, the sky became much clearer.”

“Sometimes I would spot sky lanterns. We would meet our neighbours too.”

Gazing at the night sky and listening to her mother’s stories about planets and stars inspired Tonima to dream of becoming an astronaut. Although that dream has yet to come true, she has at least managed to come close.

Now a researcher at Wayne State University in the United States, she studies supermassive black holes. Her research focuses on how these mysterious objects consume the matter around them and how they influence the galaxies they inhabit.