Get Basic Astrophysics

The multidisciplinarity of the workforce at NASA (astrophysicists, astrochemists, chemists, physicists, planetary scientists, theoreticians, astronomers) makes it a unique environment for doing Laboratory Astrophysics research.

You'll need four to six years just for a bachelor's degree, which is true of many other professions. Then comes graduate school, which can take anywhere from five years for theorists up to seven or eight for experimentalists and observers.

Astrophysics Is Easy! cuts through the difficult mathematics and explains the basics of astrophysics in accessible terms. Using nothing more than plain arithmetic and simple examples, the workings of the universe are outlined in a straightforward yet detailed and easy-to-grasp manner.

Yes, mathematics is essential for all branches of physics and critical for astrophysics. It is required that you improve your mathematical skills throughout school and university. I agree with the answers here suggesting that geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus are all highly helpful.

You'll need four to six years just for a bachelor's degree, which is true of many other professions. Then comes graduate school, which can take anywhere from five years for theorists up to seven or eight for experimentalists and observers.

But from what I've gathered, it's pretty difficult. You'll have to major in physics, which is something a lot of people already dread and cry about in high school, and in addition to that you'll have to take a minor or something of the like in astronomy. Only then can you actually do a post-graduate in astrophysics.

Thanks in advance. With curvature of space time, it's never too late for anything. Or too early, for that matter. Lots of good advice, like everyone says you're still very young, there's no reason you can't go back to school to do whatever you want.

You encounter Vector Calculus when you deal with electrodynamics (eg: radiation from a plasma), fluid dynamics (eg: stellar physics) etc. In particular, things like fluid dynamics problems require solving Partial Differential Equations. Some of these problems are better dealt with using Complex Analysis.