Awesomeness Round-Up – 2/13/2012
- By Maggie Masetti
- February 13, 2012
- Comments Off on Awesomeness Round-Up – 2/13/2012
Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium This beautiful, infrared image shows a new view of the Eagle nebula captured by the European Herschel Space Observatory. In 1995, Hubble famously captured a visble-light image of the “Pillars of Creation,” a region of star-formation. That image is below – in the … Continue Reading →
Blueshift ponders… what would you like to find on an exoplanet?
- By Maggie Masetti
- February 3, 2012
- 1 Comment
We just recently blogged about some of the strange and wonderful planetary systems recently discovered. From Saturn-like rings, to miniature scale, to systems practically right out Star Wars, it seems that there are an indefinite number of possibilities out there. Our questions to you are this: Blueshift ponders: What kind … Continue Reading →
Meet NuSTAR!
- By Maggie Masetti
- February 1, 2012
- Comments Off on Meet NuSTAR!
Meet the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array or NuSTAR – a new X-ray telescope that’s being launched in March of 2012. Below is the actual telescope in its pre-launch configuration: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Orbital And here is what it will look like post-launch! Credit: NASA NuSTAR has an interesting design that includes a … Continue Reading →
Bizarre Solar Systems at AAS
- By Maggie Masetti
- January 23, 2012
- 1 Comment
Apparently solar systems are also like a box of chocolates… As the saying goes, you never know what you’re going to get. At the recent American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Austin, TX, I got to sit in on a press session on extrasolar planets, where three new systems were … Continue Reading →
Try It At Home: Scope It Out game
- By Maggie Masetti
- January 13, 2012
- Comments Off on Try It At Home: Scope It Out game
Curious about why the James Webb Space Telescope doesn’t look like Hubble, or most telescopes you are familiar with? Curious about the differences between reflector and refractor telescopes? This game will teach you the basics of how telescopes work and compare a simple telescope to Webb and to Hubble. You’ll … Continue Reading →
Try It At Home: The RXTE Learning Center
- By Maggie Masetti
- January 6, 2012
- Comments Off on Try It At Home: The RXTE Learning Center
Happy 16th birthday to the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer! Though this mission is soon coming to a close, it’s had an incredible lifespan and so much great science has come out of it. RXTE has a Learning Center, which recently received a facelift. It has a terrific intro to X-ray … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-Up – 1/4/12
- By Maggie Masetti
- January 4, 2012
- 2 Comments
There are gorgeous new images out from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Here, Saturn’s third-largest moon, Dione, can be seen through the haze of the planet’s largest moon, Titan, in this view of the two posing before the planet and its rings. There are more on the Cassini website. Credit: NASA
Virtual Worlds for Learning Real World Engineering
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 27, 2011
- 1 Comment
This is the James Webb Space Telescope’s second year participating with the RealWorld/InWorld Engineering Design challenge. We interviewed the teacher behind the program, Sharon Bowers, last year, so we thought we’d do a little follow-up. Here are last year’s winners and participants talking about their experience: Real World In World … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-Up – 12/22/2011
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 22, 2011
- Comments Off on Awesomeness Round-Up – 12/22/2011
Credit: NASA/ESA/HubbleSite Looking for a space-themed way to say “Happy Holidays!” to your family and friends? How about some printable holiday cards with Hubble images? Every card features fabulous astronomical objects… and when you go to download a card, you’ll find links to articles about related Hubble discoveries! The ornaments … Continue Reading →
Try It At Home: Cosmic Distance Scale
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 19, 2011
- 2 Comments
Have you ever wondering why we aren’t visiting the nearest stars? Or why there are no photos of our galaxy from the outside? The short answer is that the Universe is really big. So big that even the things closest to us are really far away. Here is a little … Continue Reading →
