Awesomeness Round-up – 4/11/11
- By Maggie Masetti
- April 11, 2011
- Comments Off on Awesomeness Round-up – 4/11/11
Sorry we were slow with posts last week – we were swamped with preparations for the government shut-down that (thankfully) never happened. We’ve got a bunch of things in the works, but we’ll start with a link round-up. Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are huge explosions in space, and scientists think they … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 4/4/11
- By Sara Mitchell
- April 4, 2011
- 1 Comment
In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Program, employees down at Kennedy Space Center came together for this impressive themed aerial portrait. I’m not sure what image we would pick at Goddard, since the research here is so diverse! Any ideas? Post them in the comments! There’s … Continue Reading →
We’re on the Grid!
- By Sara Mitchell
- March 31, 2011
- 4 Comments
Last week, we got a tip from a long-time Twitter follower (hi, Pete!) that Blueshift showed up in the April 2011 issue of Astronomy magazine. I just got my hands on a copy, and there we are, in the issue’s “Cosmic Grid” section on the last page. Why are we … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 3/28/11
- By Maggie Masetti
- March 28, 2011
- Comments Off on Awesomeness Round-up – 3/28/11
The center of our galaxy glows in this infrared image taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope. This data was originally part of a more complete view of the plane of the Milky Way, but then was given different contrast to better highlight the features of this region around the galactic … Continue Reading →
Astronomical Eye Candy
- By Koji Mukai
- March 25, 2011
- 3 Comments
The HEASARC Picture of the Week for the week for Mar 21 is titled “The Ring.” Maggie posted the same image on Blueshift on Valentine’s Day, with a caption based on a Chandra press release. It sure is a pretty picture, combining Hubble and Chandra data, with a romantic connotation. … Continue Reading →
Reflections on Webb’s Mirrors
- By Maggie Masetti
- March 23, 2011
- 3 Comments
Working at Goddard can be really exciting – there’s nothing like seeing a mission come together before your eyes. I’ve worked on the James Webb Space Telescope project for a number of years, but deliveries of flight and test hardware are becoming more and more regular. It makes everything seem … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 3/21/11
- By Sara Mitchell
- March 21, 2011
- 4 Comments
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls No, it didn’t wear a cape or shoot lasers, but Saturday’s “supermoon” was a bit bigger and brighter than most full Moons due to its slightly decreased distance from Earth. It was blocked by clouds in some areas, but if you got a clear view – wasn’t … Continue Reading →
Try It At Home: Build your own satellite (paper model)!
- By Maggie Masetti
- March 18, 2011
- 4 Comments
One of the things we do a lot of at NASA Goddard is build satellites. Many, many missions have come through here to be either constructed, or tested, or both! But did you know that you can build your own versions of many of these missions? Ok, maybe they won’t … Continue Reading →
Awesomeness Round-up – 3/15/11
- By Maggie Masetti
- March 15, 2011
- 2 Comments
We’ll soon have some excitement when the ISIM (the structure that will hold the James Webb Space Telescope’s instruments) gets put on the giant centrifuge here at NASA Goddard! Read the release to find out more about why they going to spin the ISIM on a centrifuge! Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn … Continue Reading →
Blueshift ponders… how would you wake up the astronauts?
- By Maggie Masetti
- March 10, 2011
- 8 Comments
As you may or may not know, each “morning,” the astronauts aboard the shuttle are woken up with specially selected music. Sometimes they get the original band to play the tune, sometimes it’s a favorite song or a parody (during the last Hubble servicing mission, I have it on good … Continue Reading →
