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ASTRO-H Launches

A New Eye in Space

It’s with greatest pleasure that we say congratulations to the whole ASTRO-H team for a successful launch. Or should we say, the Hitomi team. ASTRO-H has been newly re-christened, as is the Japanese tradition upon a successful launch. The name Hitomi has a significance, and that is this. According to … Continue Reading →

ASTRO-H Artist Impression

Almost time…

Update, Feb 16: We have an official updated launch date! It’ll be 3:45 AM EST February 17th (that is Tuesday into early Wednesday morning). The time is almost here to see the ASTRO-H spacecraft launch, and to learn what its true name will be. The Japanese space agency has a … Continue Reading →

John Mather

A Conversation with John Mather

You might recall our recent interns from Germany, Daniela and Verena, who guest blogged for us a few times. They did some interviews with people working on the James Webb Space Telescope while they were here and we thought we would share this one with Nobel Laureate and James Webb … Continue Reading →

Mirror Scoreboard

Assembling a Space Mirror

I have been remiss in not blogging about this sooner – but it’s been incredibly busy around here at “JWST Central.” That is to say, we’ve been hard at work, here at NASA Goddard putting together the actual James Webb Space Telescope. Back in August, we had the giant telescope … Continue Reading →

Figure 7

SpaceCrafts: Making a Hubble Space Telescope Costume

  • By Maggie Masetti
  • November 30, 2015
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You may have seen our recent blog post by a high school friend of Maggie’s who helped her son make a James Webb Space Telescope costume for Halloween this year. When the Schoellners put together a Hubble costume, we had to ask them for a “how to” – so now … Continue Reading →

Robert H. Goddard and Liquid-Fueled Rocket

Following Goddard’s Tracks

Here is another guest blog from Daniela and Verena, German interns from Airbus. You can read their intro post here. You’ll find the blog first in English and then in German. Enjoy! After spending our first week at NASA Goddard, we went on our first “spacewalk.” Our mission: the discovery … Continue Reading →

Veil Nebula

How Do We Know It: Supernova Remnant Age

  • By Maggie Masetti
  • November 20, 2015
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I get a lot of inspiration for blog-topics from questions I get via email. Often they don’t have easy or straightforward answers (see this question on how many stars there are in the Milky Way). I was recently asked how we arrived at an age of 8000 years for the … Continue Reading →

Daniela and Verena

A Visit From Germany

Daniela Schnauder and Verena Wechsler are visiting Goddard from Germany, for an internship via Airbus Defense & Space. They will be contributing several guest blogs to Blueshift while they are here. And, they’ll be blogging in both English and German. Here is their introduction. You’ll find the English first – … Continue Reading →

Oren and his brother

SpaceCrafts: Making a James Webb Space Telescope Costume

  • By Maggie Masetti
  • November 12, 2015
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Note: A childhood friend of mine came for a visit this summer with her science-obsessed seven-year-old, Oren. He was so taken with what he saw that he wanted a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) costume for Halloween. They did such a nice job with it (and the accompanying Ariane 5 … Continue Reading →

The Chamber of Secrets

Ok, this chamber isn’t really a secret, though maybe you didn’t know it existed? Here are a few clues as to its idenity. It is absolutely enormous. It was used during the Apollo era… and a Transformers ™ movie… Image Credit: NASA/JSC Image Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz & Bill Stafford. … … Continue Reading →

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