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Galaxy cluster PKS 0745-191

The Learning Curve

Japan has established a strong presence in X-ray astronomy ever since the successful launch of the Hakucho satellite in 1979. Hakucho was followed by Tenma (launched in 1983), Ginga (1987), ASCA (1993), and Suzaku (2005), with the last three in collaboration with international (notably US) partners. Suzaku was designed to … Continue Reading →


Awesomeness Round-up

Awesomeness Round-up – 10/25/10

There’s been a trend lately to have webcams or live streams in some of NASA’s cleanrooms so that you guys can see flight hardware being built and tested. And every once in a while, something unexpected happens! (At about 10 seconds in, in this case…) You can see a new … Continue Reading →


Podcast: The C.O.L.B.E.R.T. Episode

What’s in a Name?

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 →


Podcast: The C.O.L.B.E.R.T. Episode

Podcast: The C.O.L.B.E.R.T. Episode

Click to listen! (9MB MP3, right-click to save) Transcript (Text, PDF) NASA is famous for its acronyms and technical jargon. If you’ve ever watched a rocket launch or a spacewalk, you’ve heard some of them. Blueshift is produced by the ASD EPO team at NASA GSFC – that is, the Astrophysics Science … Continue Reading →


Podcast: X-ray Vision

Podcast: X-ray Vision

Click to listen! (17MB MP3, right-click to save) Transcript (Text, PDF) Welcome to the June 2007 episode of Blueshift, from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. We’re featuring X-ray astronomy this episode – listening to black holes and learning about what it takes to build an X-ray telescope. We interviewed Jerry Bonnell, co-curator … Continue Reading →


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