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AAS Day 1: Cassini & the Saturnian Rings
Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in 2004 after a roughly 7 year journey through the solar system. For 5.5 years it has weaved through the Saturn system, in an orbit that has carried it near the...
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AAS Poster: Tweeting Astronomy
Twitter Bird Back in October when AAS abstracts were due, I decided to submit something that would force me to think, program, and do something just for fun and not for grants. My original idea was to...
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Lunar phase visualization contest
Right now I’m sitting in the main ‘ballroom’* of the NASA Ames conference center. I’m here for the NASA Lunar Forums, which are hosted by the NASA Lunar Science Institute, which is housed at NASA Ames....
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Universal Education
Here in the USA (or I should say there, since I’m currently in France), education tends to be somewhat nationalistic. It has to be. Teachers are tied to state and federal learning standards and if...
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AAS219: Austin, TX
I’m currently at the 219th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, TX. I’m here for just two days, and due to meetings, my coverage may be somewhat limited, but I’m going to do what I...
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Dark Skies, Dark Internet
Orion Constellation by davedehetre Looking around the internet today, I’m amazed to see how many people and websites are in their own way protesting SOPA and PIPA. What is most fascinating to me is the...
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A Rocket Car Future (for some)
Blue Origin Rocket Currently I’m attending the Next Generation Sub-Orbital Research (and Education) Conference in Palo Alto, California. I’m staring at all my notes struggling with finding a coherent...
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Slow Science & Peer-Review
Hourglass by borabora on Flickr Science moves slowly. That may seem like an odd statement when the pace of press releases and breaking news seems to imply that new discoveries are flying fast and...
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Of NASA and Budgets
Austerity by 401 on Flickr Fine print: While I receive funding from NASA for some of my work, this blog post written by me as a private citizen. Today was the NASA Town Hall; that 1 or more hour window...
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Cassini, Cassini, Cassini
Here at the Lunar and Planertary Sciences’ Conference, I think it is safe to say that Cassini is in the house. From weather on Titan, to seasonal variations on Enceladus, to cracking of Dione, you...
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Red August: A Mars Month
Mars (Credit: NASA / USGS) The month of August is named after Augustus Ceasar, the Roman Emperor who oversaw the expansion of the Roman Empire in the years after Julius Ceasar’s death on the Ides of...
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IAU, Pluto, and naming P5
The 2012 meeting of the International Astronomical Union is about to begin in Beijing, China. I’ll be attending the second week of the meeting, and talking on the very last day (yikes!) The 2 constant...
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Thank you, Neil Armstrong
A Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation artist’s concept depicting mankind’s first walk on another celestial body. When I heard Neil Armstrong had died, my first reaction was to stop walking and...
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IAU, I’m lost within you
This morning I woke up in Beijing. This wasn’t entirely surprising since I’d fallen asleep at about 32,000 ft on AA187, inbound to PEK from ORD. Nonetheless, no matter how much you know logically that...
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Looking for inspiration
I have to admit, life has gotten sufficiently busy that I’ve lost all track of time and place. Yesterday, waking up in Austin for SXSW Interactive, I was reminded by the intertubes that it is Women’s...
View ArticleReaching into the Low Orbit Frontier
One of the great things about working on Astronomy Cast is that sometimes I get to learn about things that I just didn’t fully appreciate in the past. Today I’m preparing for an episode on...
View Articlethe universe, being relatively small
I stumbled across a piece of beauty today… the universe, being relatively small, can’t seem to contain all my ideas, often, I think it’s far too small to fit both of us what we need is a multiverse...
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Emerging Fields: Astronomy Communications and Education
When I started graduate school, I was given the impression that astronomy consisted of two broad formats (observational and theoretical) and addressed a set of specific subtopics (planets, stars,...
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A Voorwerpish Comic
Sometimes, as an astronomer, I get to do some really weird stuff. This summer is one of those times. I actually, thanks to project PI (i.e. lead) Bill Keel, got an opportunity to help produce a comic...
View ArticleCounting rocks: Maybe it’s enough
[N.B. Yesterday I accepted the Issac Asimov Science Award from the American Humanist Society. This is my acceptance speech, which you can watch it over on YouTube. If my voice sounds off, it’s because...
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