SDO is GO!
- By Sara Mitchell
- February 19, 2010
- 2 Comments
February always seems to be a busy month – it’s a few days shorter than the rest and jam-packed with things to do. This one is no exception. NASA Goddard got blanketed with quite a few feet of snow in a series of storms, making the roads impassible for a … Continue Reading →
What’s in a Name?
- By Sara Mitchell
- May 18, 2009
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The scene: July 9, 2005, nearly midnight. A large conference room at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center full of assorted scientists, engineers, and support staff. This was the launch party for Astro-E2, a joint Japanese-American satellite mission strapped to a rocket thousands of miles away from Goddard at Uchinoura Space … Continue Reading →
It’s All Relative
- By Sara Mitchell
- April 30, 2009
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Astronomers have a funny way of talking about things sometimes. Take temperature, for example. When scientists say something is “hot,” they aren’t talking about “hot” like the Sahara desert, or “hot” like the seat of your car on a summer day. No, they’re talking about an unimaginably high temperature beyond … Continue Reading →
Inventing 101
- By Sara Mitchell
- April 17, 2009
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Some people just have a knack for building things, or taking things apart to make them work better. My grandfather is one of these people – he looks at the stuff he uses everyday and tinkers with it to make it better suit his needs. As a kid, I laughed … Continue Reading →
Gearing Up for 100 Hours
- By Sara Mitchell
- March 18, 2009
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If you look at a calendar, it seems like every day is a holiday somewhere in the world. Today is Flag Day in Aruba. It’s also celebrated as the Pillsbury Doughboy’s birthday. And tomorrow is National Chocolate Caramel Day… I’m not kidding. It also seems like every year is the … Continue Reading →
Extreme Weather
- By Sara Mitchell
- March 3, 2009
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It took a couple of extra days to get our latest episode finished, thanks in part to our first real winter storm of the year! In Maryland, we definitely experience all four seasons. We get hot, humid summers and cold, crisp winters – plus occasionally some extreme weather like snow, … Continue Reading →
Starry Night
- By Sara Mitchell
- February 17, 2009
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Growing up just outside of Washington, DC, I didn’t have many opportunities to observe the sky and see more than a handful of faint stars. It was exciting to go camping farther from the city and see so many more twinkling lights in the sky. And I always enjoyed my … Continue Reading →
Why?
- By Sara Mitchell
- January 29, 2009
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Today’s episode focuses on a surprising result found by a NASA balloon-borne experiment. We chose this story because it highlights the excitement and uncertainty in any scientific experiment – you never know what you’ll find. Will your data support your predictions, contradict them, or point you in an entirely new … Continue Reading →
A New Beginning
- By Sara Mitchell
- January 14, 2009
- 1 Comment
If you’ve visited Blueshift before, you’re probably wondering… hey, where have you been for the last year? We released six podcasts in 2007 but got a lot of mixed feedback from listeners about the content and structure. We decided to take some time off to re-think and get a better … Continue Reading →