Podcast: Finding Herschel
- By Maggie Masetti
- September 26, 2013
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Click to listen! (14.5MB MP3, right-click to save) Transcript (Text, PDF) In July we had astronomer Nick Howes do a guest blog post about how he was able to image the Herschel observatory, which sat a million miles away from the Earth at the 2nd Lagrange point (and is now … Continue Reading →
Q&A with Women working on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope
- By Maggie Masetti
- September 17, 2013
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EDIT 10/18/13, Here is a transcript of the Reddit Q&A on JWST’s website. You can also read the original thread, which is posted below. EDIT 9/26/12, Here is the thread with the Q&A: http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/1n6r5d/qa_with_women_working_on_nasas_james_webb_space/ Ever wonder what the job experience is like for women working on NASA’s flagship astronomy mission? … Continue Reading →
Why infrared? (earliest galaxies edition)
- By Maggie Masetti
- September 12, 2013
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This is the second blog in a series which asks the question, why infrared? Last time we looked at how infrared light could reveal baby stars hidden from visible-light observatories by opaque clouds of gas. In this blog I’m going to talk about (what else?) the James Webb Space Telescope … Continue Reading →
Podcast: How We Learn, Part 4 of our interview with “The Bad Astronomer,” Dr. Phil Plait
- By Maggie Masetti
- September 9, 2013
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Click to listen! (7MB MP3, right-click to save) Transcript (Text, PDF) Here’s the last part of our four part interview with Dr. Phil Plait, the “Bad Astronomer.” Phil is a scientist who now writes about science for the public, with a large focus on debunking bad science and astronomy. In … Continue Reading →
Happy birthday, Spitzer!
- By Maggie Masetti
- September 6, 2013
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Seems like only yesterday we were celebrating the 5th birthday of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. As it turns out, there’s another space telescope celebrating a big anniversary – the Spitzer Space Telescope just turned ten on August 25th! I know talk a lot about JWST and how amazing it’s … Continue Reading →
Happy birthday, Fermi!
- By Maggie Masetti
- August 23, 2013
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Recently we passed the 5th birthday of NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. And there was cake! Yup, this satellite is made of cake! And candy! Credit: Eric Winter We recently asked, why infrared? And we could just as easily ask, why gamma-rays? As it turns out, there are many strange … Continue Reading →
Why infrared? (nebula edition)
- By Maggie Masetti
- August 16, 2013
- 2 Comments
As someone who fields a lot of questions about the James Webb Space Telescope, a giant infrared observatory being built right now, I see a lot of “Why infrared?” questions. There are a lot of answers to this, but here’s one I think is particularly interesting and illustrative of why … Continue Reading →
Celebrating GALEX
- By Maggie Masetti
- August 2, 2013
- 1 Comment
We recently said a fond farewell to the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) mission, which was decommissioned in June. GALEX had a single instrument onboard that was both an imager and a spectrometer at UV wavelengths. It was launched in April of 2003, and spent 10 years studying hundreds of millions … Continue Reading →
Finding Herschel
- By Maggie Masetti
- July 1, 2013
- 1 Comment
We have an extra-special guest blog today! Nick Howes of the Faulkes Telescope Project wrote a blog for us about about his recent mission to find and image a legendary European Telescope. There are only a few years to go before the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which … Continue Reading →
Podcast: “Go outside and look up!,” Part 3 of our interview with “The Bad Astronomer,” Dr. Phil Plait
- By Maggie Masetti
- June 26, 2013
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Click to listen! (9MB MP3, right-click to save) Transcript (Text, PDF) This is part three of four of our interview with Dr. Phil Plait, the so-called “Bad Astronomer.” Phil is a scientist, writer, and specializes in debunking bad science. In part 1, we learned how he got started, and in … Continue Reading →
