Gravitational Waves and Cosmic Collisions: 5 Questions with Dr. Ryan DeRosa
- By Raleigh McElvery
- October 10, 2017
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Meet Dr. Ryan DeRosa, one of the newest additions to our Astrophysics Science Division. His research is pretty out there, and we mean that literally since he aims to detect cosmic reverberations from billions of light-years away. He started out working on the massive, L-shaped gravitational wave detectors of the … Continue Reading →
Shock Waves Power an Exploding Star
- By Raleigh McElvery
- September 5, 2017
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Roughly 50 times each year, a star nearing the end of its life accretes too much material from a close companion star and erupts in a violent display of light — shedding its outer surface and propelling shock waves into our galaxy — only to recover and smolder as it … Continue Reading →
#PulsarWeek: NICER Ask Me Anything! – Part 2
- By Barb Mattson
- August 16, 2017
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On August 7, 2017, as the grande finale to #PulsarWeek, members of the recently-launched Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission team sat down for an hour to answer questions about the mission, pulsars, space navigation, and even more off-the-wall topics in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) event. We’ve … Continue Reading →
#PulsarWeek: NICER Ask Me Anything! – Part 1
- By Sara Mitchell
- August 16, 2017
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On August 7, 2017, as the grande finale to #PulsarWeek, members of the recently-launched Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission team sat down for an hour to answer questions about the mission, pulsars, space navigation, and even more off-the-wall topics in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) event. We’ve … Continue Reading →
#PulsarWeek: The women who study pulsars
- By Sara Mitchell
- August 6, 2017
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For the past week, we have been celebrating #PulsarWeek on social media in honor of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of pulsars. For more on the discovery itself, and about some of the researchers currently studying pulsars in NASA Goddard’s Astrophysics Science Division, here’s a guest blog from Goddard … Continue Reading →
RXTE’s Greatest Pulsar Hits
- By Barb Mattson
- August 3, 2017
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A pulsar is the crushed core of an exploded star, a rapidly spinning cinder that repeatedly swings a beam of light in our direction. Check out the post “Lighthouses in Space” for more about what pulsars are, how they work and why we study them. On the eve of the … Continue Reading →
Peering into the Dusty Corners of the Universe with BETTII
- By Sara Mitchell
- June 8, 2017
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Sara’s note: We’re excited to tell you about one of the Goddard-built balloon-borne astrophysics missions launching this week! This is a guest post (and photos) from Dr. Stephen Rinehart. The Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry (BETTII) is a 8-meter long far-infrared interferometer designed to fly on a high … Continue Reading →
NICER is on its way to the ISS!
- By Sara Mitchell
- June 3, 2017
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The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) launched successfully from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center today at 5:07PM EDT! Check out this spectacular launch: NICER had plenty of company on its ride up to the International Space Station, as the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched with almost 6,000 pounds of cargo including … Continue Reading →
NICER and Neutron Stars: 5 Questions with Dr. Tod Strohmayer
- By Barb Mattson
- June 1, 2017
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As we’re gearing up for the launch of NICER, we wanted to give our readers a behind-the-scenes look at the mission, its science, and the people who are making it happen. NICER is NASA’s first mission designed specifically for the study of neutron stars, so we are kicking things off … Continue Reading →
Meet NICER: NASA’s Neutron Star Explorer
- By Sara Mitchell
- May 31, 2017
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This white box may not look like much, but it contains a cutting-edge payload that will soon be headed to the International Space Station. The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity dedicated to the study of neutron stars and all of their extraordinary … Continue Reading →
