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Planet-forming disk - artist's conception

Try It At Home: Help Discover New Planets!

  • By Sara Mitchell
  • December 7, 2015
  • Comments Off on Try It At Home: Help Discover New Planets!

When I heard the news that astronomers have made unprecedented observations of a still-forming planet around a star named LkCa 15, I was really excited. Just 25 years ago, we hadn’t found any exoplanets and weren’t sure if, when, or how we’d find something so small, faint, and distant. In … Continue Reading →


Awesomeness Round-up

Awesomeness Round-up – 3/15/11

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 →


Awesomeness Round-up

Awesomeness Round-up – 12/20/10

It’s been very cold and windy here in Maryland lately – but not quite THIS cold. I guess the upside to extreme temperatures is that you can do experiments like this one, done at Mount Washington Observatory when it was nearly -35 degrees F. Do you know what happens when … Continue Reading →


Be a scientist!

Be a scientist!

In one of last week’s contests, we asked our readers/followers/listeners (whatever you guys are – we love you!) to tell us about the things they’d like to see covered here on Blueshift.  And we got tons of interesting ideas that’ll fuel a bunch of our weekly brainstorming sessions!  One of … Continue Reading →


Awesomeness Round-up

Awesomeness Round-up – 9/13/10

Another milestone for the James Webb Space Telescope – the first primary mirror segment to be coated in gold (it’s a flight spare and engineering design unit) is undergoing cryo testing! Isn’t it pretty? I can’t wait to see what the whole mirror assembly will look like once it’s all … Continue Reading →


Citizen science - and I helped!

Citizen science – and I helped!

My house started rumbling at 5:04 this morning.  I was instantly awake.  Was it thunder?  A low-flying jet?   It lasted a little too long for either of those scenarios – and it was really a sensation, not a noise.  I was pretty sure we’d just experienced an earthquake here … Continue Reading →


Awesomeness Round-up

Awesomeness Round-up – 7/5/10

Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa (uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video) Cue the vuvuzelas – NASA Goes to the World Cup! See the games from a new perspective with a slideshow of images from Earth-observing satellites of the event sites and participating countries.


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