ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Two Palmyra-Macedon students just returned from a trip out of this world. Presenting their astrological research to some of the top minds in the country, the world, and maybe the universe. Reaching to the furthest edges of our galaxy and beyond to discover how it all started. Two Pal-Mac students say they’ve been working for two years to decode how to detect the first signs of a newly birthed star. “I always think that the stars at the very far reaches of the universe are very cool, because there’s so much there, that we don’t understand how the sun formed exactly," said 12-grader Richard Perry. "We don’t know what that was exactly like.” “I’ve always loved looking at constellations and learning about the solar system," said 12-grader Madeleine Sullivan. "Then, when I took astronomy, I learned that there were things outside the solar system that I had no idea about.” Madeleine and Richard are among only 15 students in the nation invited to the American Astronomical Society’s winter meeting. There they presented their work using literature, telescope data, and infrared heat patterns to find potential young stellar objects—or YSL's—since newly birthed stars are surrounded by gasses that make them invisible to the human eye. They showed their hard work to NASA members and some of the top aerospace engineers and companies worldwide. The two reflect on their best experiences. “Presenting my research, because it’s one thing to study something," Madeleine said. "It’s one thing entirely to try to explain it to other people, so I just thought that was the coolest thing ever.” “Definitely makes me much more interested, because I want to work in rocketry and aerospace engineering," said Richard. "It makes it a lot cooler, thinking I will be potentially helping to send the satellites and stuff up.” They both admit they started stumped when trying to understand such complex concepts, but if this invitation and experience have taught them anything, it’s to set your goals amongst the stars. “Don’t give up hope. This is just because you don’t know, doesn’t mean it’s hopeless," Richard said.