Extraterrestrial Fun from Home
- By Faith Tucker
- August 19, 2011
- Comments Off on Extraterrestrial Fun from Home
We here at Blueshift do our best to cover all things astrophysics, which we rather loosely define as ‘anything and everything outside the Solar System.’ Considering that the Universe just happens to be an absolutely enormous place filled with innumerable galaxies, each containing billions of stars, planets and other objects, … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 8/16/2011
- By Faith Tucker
- August 16, 2011
- 1 Comment
The Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory released some exciting news about the age-old question of origin of the chemical components necessary for life. According to Dr. Michael Callahan of Goddard, “People have been discovering components of DNA in meteorites since the 1960’s, but researchers were unsure whether they were really created … Continue Reading →
Paying Tribute to the Scientists of the 16th & 17th Centuries
- By Koji Mukai
- August 15, 2011
- 1 Comment
We all know that Nicolaus Copernicus revolutionized our view of the universe. Who would you pick as the top scientists who further developed astronomy during the 16th and 17th centuries? I would pick Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Edmond Halley as my top five. I got … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-Up – 8/8/2011
- By Faith Tucker
- August 9, 2011
- Comments Off on Awesomeness Round-Up – 8/8/2011
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed new images that show some Martian slopes that change over the course of the Martian seasons. The scientists involved in the project think that best explanation for these seasonal changes would be the flow of salty water, much like our oceans. I wonder what … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 7/26/11
- By Maggie Masetti
- July 26, 2011
- 3 Comments
The James Webb Space Telescope has had a lot of recent milestones. All the primary mirror segments have been polished – and the secondary mirror has just been completed. You can read a NASA web feature all about what Webb’s secondary mirror does and why it’s important. (It’s quite large … Continue Reading →
A letter to NASA
- By Maggie Masetti
- July 25, 2011
- 4 Comments
I think it’s easy for those of us who work at NASA to sometimes forget that WE WORK AT NASA! For many of us, it’s a job, with frustrations and mundane paperwork, just like any other place of employment has. And then we get a reminder of where we actually … Continue Reading →
Sunsets, Scattering, and Similes
- By Faith Tucker
- July 22, 2011
- 4 Comments
There are two sides to every coin. And there are (at least) two ways to describe any natural phenomenon. Take a sunset, for example. A physicist may describe a sunset as the electromagnetic radiation from the Sun undergoing Rayleigh scattering as it passes through the atmosphere low on the horizon, … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 7/18/11
- By Maggie Masetti
- July 18, 2011
- 1 Comment
Hank Green is still increasing the awesome. Here he talks about what’s next for NASA (post-space shuttle). He interviews a bunch of NASA folks, including NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. Have you ever wondered how many people are in space at a given time? http://www.howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com/ has the answer! There really is … Continue Reading →
Foodies at NASA
- By Maggie Masetti
- July 15, 2011
- 2 Comments
Sara and I chatted with Erik Trinidad (and Moe Murdock) from Fancy Fast Food about their experience visiting NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. They got to see a lot of very cool stuff, like the James Webb Space Telescope’s ISIM structure (it will hold Webb’s instruments) spinning on the centrifuge. … Continue Reading →
Fancy Fast (Space) Food
- By Maggie Masetti
- July 12, 2011
- 4 Comments
When Sara and I attended Blogworld last year, we met Erik Trinidad, the mastermind behind the food humor blog, Fancy Fast Food. Erik’s blog entries are about his experiments taking a fast food meal, and transforming it into something that looks like fancy cuisine. The three of us schemed and … Continue Reading →
