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American Astronomical Society wrap-up

Well, it happened again, guys!  The 222nd biannual meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) held at the Indiana Convention Center, that’s what. For those of you not in the loop, the American Astronomical Society is a professional society for astronomers devoted to promoting astronomy and like sciences as well … Continue Reading →

Next Gen Engineers and Scientists Study a Next Gen Telescope

  • By Maggie Masetti
  • June 10, 2013
  • Comments Off on Next Gen Engineers and Scientists Study a Next Gen Telescope

Another school year has come and gone – as has another RealWorld/InWorld (RWIW) Engineering Design Challenge, this year sponsored by the James Webb Space Telescope. I last wrote about this awesome student program in November – and since then we’ve had InWorld Q&A’s with James Webb Space Telescope project members, … Continue Reading →

The New Guy

Hello Blueshifters! Prepare to join me on a few blogs this summer as I explore the infinite out here at the Goddard Space Flight Center. “Who are you?” you ask.  Jason McCracken, meanderer extraordinaire and intern magnificent! I was born and raised in Rockford, IL, where I became heavily involved … Continue Reading →

What’s This? #4 – The big reveal!

In our latest entry in the What’s This? series, we posted a mysterious image and asked for people to guess what they were looking at. So what is this tall thing in NASA Goddard’s cleanroom? We had a lot of great guesses – a number of people guessed it was … Continue Reading →

What’s This? #4 – May 28, 2013

We haven’t had a What’s This? in a long time! This one is a little different than the previous ones we’ve done. Your hint is that this image is from our giant cleanroom at NASA Goddard. So check it out and try to figure out… what’s this object? Post your … Continue Reading →

Blueshift ponders… what’s one misconception in astronomy that drives you crazy?

Blueshift has covered the bad science in movies. In today’s “Blueshift Ponders,” we asked several of our colleagues: What’s one misconception in astronomy drives you crazy? Here are are their answers! What are yours? Tell us yours either in the comments, or on Facebook or Twitter! Korey Haynes: The “dark” … Continue Reading →

Come Together

If you’re at all a fan of astronomy, you’ve probably marveled over the many beautiful photos of spiral galaxies that are out there. Like this one of NGC 3344 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASABut you may not know that galaxies have not always looked this … Continue Reading →

Comet Watch

If you’re an astronomy buff, you might know that Comet Pan-STARRS has been gracing our early evening skies over the last few weeks. I was pretty excited about this because when I was in college, we had two spectacularly bright comets appear – Hayakutake and Hale-Bopp – a year apart. … Continue Reading →

Awww! Cosmic baby pictures!

Protostars in Messier 78, as seen by multiple observatories Credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/JPL-Caltech/Max-Planck The side-by-side images above depict protostars found in Messier 78, a reflection nebula found within the constellation Orion (but not the Orion Nebula, which is Messier 42). These are some of the youngest stars that astronomers have ever seen … Continue Reading →

A Victorian Scandal

A recent event reminded me of a scandal of a sort that happened around 1850. At the center of it was John Russell Hind, a British astronomer (I mentioned him in a previous blog about archives). Hind was a superb observer who knew the sky very well. He discovered many … Continue Reading →

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