Awesomeness Round-up – 1/3/11
- By Maggie Masetti
- January 3, 2011
- 1 Comment
Hello, and happy new year to all our readers/listeners! Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who entered our snowflake contest! We’ll announce the winners this week. Registration is going to open soon for a NASA tweet-up that will give an insider look at its planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft and the … Continue Reading →
Happy 15th Anniversary to RXTE!
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 30, 2010
- 1 Comment
Today is the 15th anniversary of the launch of the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE)! With its future in jeopardy, we thought we’d like to celebrate its long and useful life. Did you know that over its productive lifetime, there have been more than 2000 RXTE-related articles in scientific journals … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 12/27/10
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 27, 2010
- 4 Comments
You might be aware that last week on Earth there was a total lunar eclipse. That’s when the Moon passes into the shadow of the Earth; this is different that a solar eclipse, which is when the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, temporarily obscuring the Sun. Another … Continue Reading →
Contest: Just One Day Left!
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 21, 2010
- Comments Off on Contest: Just One Day Left!
There’s just one more day left to enter our space-themed snowflake and garland contest! We have really cool prizes, some of which are “as seen on TV!” View the official rules and enter! Entries are due December 22, 2010 at 11:59PM EST
Awesomeness Round-up – 12/20/10
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 20, 2010
- Comments Off on Awesomeness Round-up – 12/20/10
It’s been very cold and windy here in Maryland lately – but not quite THIS cold. I guess the upside to extreme temperatures is that you can do experiments like this one, done at Mount Washington Observatory when it was nearly -35 degrees F. Do you know what happens when … Continue Reading →
Blueshift is on Facebook!
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 3, 2010
- Comments Off on Blueshift is on Facebook!
We know, we’re like the last ones – but we finally do have a Facebook! We’ll try not to duplicate our content too much with our Twitter feed – but obviously we’ll be announcing new posts and such in both places so we can get the word out to as … Continue Reading →
Contest: Let it snow…
- By Maggie Masetti
- December 1, 2010
- 3 Comments
Snowflake made by Jenny Lee Fowler As you may or may not know, NASA and Etsy (the marketplace for all things crafty) recently teamed up to have a space-themed craft contest. The voting period for this contest was extended through December 6, so please go check out all the cool … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 11/29/10
- By Maggie Masetti
- November 29, 2010
- Comments Off on Awesomeness Round-up – 11/29/10
Two colliding spiral galaxies triggered a burst of star formation called a “starburst” (not like the candy). This one is the brightest ever seen away from the center of a galaxy merger. This image of these two galaxies (which are collectively known as II Zw 096) is a combination of … Continue Reading →
Happy Thanksgiving from Blueshift!
- By Maggie Masetti
- November 24, 2010
- 2 Comments
Ok, most of us at NASA aren’t astronauts and will be having normal Earth-food for Thanksgiving, but have you ever wondered what Thanksgiving is like for astronauts in space? Last year, astronauts Jeff Williams and Nicole Stott made a little video to show what they’d be eating for Thanksgiving on … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 11/22/10
- By Maggie Masetti
- November 22, 2010
- 2 Comments
The Chandra X-ray satellite just found the youngest nearby black hole. At 30 years old, it’s the remnant of SN 1979C, a supernova in the galaxy M100 approximately 50 million light years from Earth. “If our interpretation is correct, this is the nearest example where the birth of a black … Continue Reading →
