Podcast: Studying Simulated Stardust
- By Sara Mitchell
- April 25, 2013
- Comments Off on Podcast: Studying Simulated Stardust
Dust – on Earth, it’s a nuisance. But in space, it’s a valuable natural resource, a raw material essential to the formation of nearly any object imaginable. NASA Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Christina Richey studies interstellar dust grains through laboratory-created analogs, comparing the properties of simulated stardust to data from missions like SOFIA, Spitzer, and Herschel. This hands-on approach gives Christina and other researchers unique insight into the building blocks of stars, planets, and even life. This research complements observational data, computer simulations, and other studies of how objects form and work in space. In this interview, Blueshift spoke to Christina about her research as well as her adventures outside the lab, looking for life in exceptionally hostile environments.
Click to listen! (10MB MP3, right-click to save)
Transcript (Text, PDF)
Christina recently accepted a new position with NASA’s Planetary Science Division and will no longer be blogging for us about her adventures, but you can read her previous guest blogs:
- Celebrating Science and Engineering in Washington, DC
- 7 Degrees of NuSTAR…
- The Life of a Scientist: Traveling to ACM 2012, Niigata, Japan
- The Life of a Scientist: Astrobiology in Iceland, Parts I and II
- The Life of a Scientist: Astrobiology in Iceland, Parts III and IV
For more on interstellar dust:
- What is interstellar dust? Cool Cosmos has some basic information.
- This isn’t the first podcast we’ve made about dust! Listen to Dust in the Interstellar Wind, an interview with Goddard astrophysicist John Debes about dusty disks and planetary formation.
- The SOFIA mission just captured amazingly detailed infrared images of a massive star forming in a nursery of interstellar gas and dust SOFIA is also responsible for data which helps laboratory scientists formulate interstellar dust analogs.
Host | Sara Mitchell |
Guest | Christina Richey |
Interviewers | Sara Mitchell and Maggie Masetti |
Editor | Maggie Masetti |
Theme Music | Naked Singularity |
Website Support | Maggie Masetti |
Producer | Sara Mitchell |