Welcome to Blueshift, produced by the Astrophysics Science Division at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Our podcasts, blogs, and downloads are your "backstage pass" to the science, missions and people here at Goddard - we'll fill you in on groundbreaking discoveries, innovative technology, new missions, and other exciting stories. Check back regularly for updates, and send us your questions and comments!

May 18, 2009 - The C.O.L.B.E.R.T. Episode

Check out the latest podcast episode, released today!

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 Center in southern Japan. The lucky few were at the launch site, and the rest of us showed up at work on a Saturday night to celebrate.

Streaming video was projected on a screen, the voices and captions in Japanese. I was running back and forth between the party and an office down the hall, updating our mission blog to reflect the latest launch status. The countdown began (in Japanese), and we watched Astro-E2 zoom toward the cosmos until the last camera on the launch vehicle lost signal. Success! We knew Astro-E2 would be christened with a new name, but not until it had successfully completed a full orbit of the Earth. We waited for the telephone call, the voice from the other side of the planet that would tell us the satellite's new name: Suzaku.

All of the building and testing (and waiting) was over. This new name reflected a new era for the mission, but it took some time to get used to it. Websites, file names, email addresses - everything was now outdated. For weeks, I caught myself calling the mission by its old name. People stumbled over the pronunciation. And we found ourselves re-promoting the mission, making the connection between the familiar old name and the exotic new one.

Which name do I prefer? Definitely Suzaku! But that experience spurred a fascination with NASA names, where they come from and what they mean. When Stephen Colbert campaigned to get the latest ISS node named for himself, we saw an opportunity to make a podcast episode about how things are named here. In honor of Mr. Colbert, and NASA's well-known love of acronyms, we present the Conciliatory On-Line Blueshift Episodic Recorded Transmission - the C.O.L.B.E.R.T. episode.

Listen to the new episode, and follow us on Twitter - we're @NASAblueshift!

April 30, 2009 - Stroll the Solar System

Check out the latest podcast episode, released today!

Astronomers have a funny way of talking about things sometimes. Take temperature, for example. When scientists say something is "hot," they aren't talking about "hot" like the Sahara desert, or "hot" like the seat of your car on a summer day. No, they're talking about an unimaginably high temperature beyond that which any humans (or spacecraft) can stand. Then when they say "cold," they might mean an equally extreme temperature... or a temperature that doesn't seem that cold to our bodies. Compared to the searing heat of the Sun, the Earth's climate seems downright frigid!

It's all relative, really. Words just don't mean the same thing when applied to the extremes of space. Astronomers would say the Sun is a "small" star. But... on a human scale, the Sun is huge! It's just that, compared to other stars, ours is pretty average. A truly "large" star (in astronomical terms) would swallow the Earth and other inner planets whole. So I'm pretty happy that the Sun is "small."

Space is big and full of extremes - the largest objects we've ever seen, the hottest (and coldest) climates, and distances measured in kilometers with a lot of zeros at the end. This can make it difficult to imagine what it's like out there, what's out there and how it all fits together. This is where good models come into play. There are a lot of different ways to represent the objects in space in ways that make their size, distance, and other characteristics more relatable.

During the 100 Hours of Astronomy, we partnered with a community group to offer special tours of the solar system. Just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, there is a permanent scale model of the solar system along a popular trail frequented by cyclists and day-hikers. The trail shrinks the solar system from 3.7 billion miles down to a much more manageable 4.6 miles, and has stations to show the locations of planets along this scale. At our event, we added scientists at each stop to share information and materials along the trail. Blueshift's own Francis Reddy took the tour... and shares his experience in today's episode.

April 17, 2009 - Professional Tinkering

Check out the latest podcast episode, released today!

Some people just have a knack for building things, or taking things apart to make them work better. My grandfather is one of these people - he looks at the stuff he uses everyday and tinkers with it to make it better suit his needs. As a kid, I laughed at his toaster tongs (so you don't burn your fingers), his long-reach grasping device (so you can reach things beyond arm's length), and his half-sized roll of paper towels (so you get exactly how much you want). As an adult, I recognize the sheer practicality of each of these items. And I've also seen very similar items pop up on the shelves of the supermarket or on late-night infomercials.

In astrophysics, technology and science are tied together in equally practical ways. The questions asked by scientists inspire the creation of new technologies. In turn, the innovation of new technologies creates the opportunity for advances in science. NASA depends on this cycle to drive both scientific and technological opportunities and achievements. Behind the scenes, scientists and engineers are busy putting together the hardware and software that make new discoveries possible.

Our first episode back in 2007 featured an interview with two key members of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team - Matt Greenhouse and Harvey Moseley. We were especially keen to learn about the satellite's innovative microshutter array, a new technology pioneered at Goddard by Dr. Moseley and his colleagues. You can hear that interview here. The microshutters will allow the satellite's instruments to observe very faint, distant objects while carefully filtering out unwanted light from nearer, brighter sources. They act as tiny shutters that can be precisely controlled to view and block specific portions of the sky. Never before has a satellite had such control over what it is observing, or to observe so many different sources at once!

The need for a controlled field-of-view drove the innovation of the microshutter array. But its invention will now allow scientists to observe more objects, and observe them better than has ever been possible. See the cycle at work? The scientists and engineers that develop neat new technology like this have to figure out how to make things work in very inhospitable environments, and usually without any possibility of being able to correct mistakes after launch. So they design, tinker, and test (and test and test) to put together something that will solve a problem - and open new doors.

Today's episode follows up with Dr. Moseley about the process by which new technologies are invented and assembled. If you like to tinker, this is a must-listen episode about how to meet a demand, get started on a project, and learn from your mistakes.

March 18, 2009 - 400 Years, 100 Hours

Check out the latest podcast episode, released today!

If you look at a calendar, it seems like every day is a holiday somewhere in the world. Today is Flag Day in Aruba. It's also celebrated as the Pillsbury Doughboy's birthday. And tomorrow is National Chocolate Caramel Day... I'm not kidding. It also seems like every year is the "year of" something. Some of these have cultural or mythological significance. Others are decreed by national or international governments. 2009 has been chosen as the International Year of Astronomy by the International Astronomical Union and endorsed by the United Nations. So it's official, but what does it mean? Why should we care?

2009 was picked for the International Year of Astronomy because it marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's momentous telescope observations in 1609 (the first ever recorded). Those observations significantly advanced the field of astronomy, so I think they're worth celebrating! (I'm also going to celebrate National Chocolate Caramel Day.) The entire year will be filled with global projects and events, getting people looking through telescopes and learning more about the Universe around them.

In a few short weeks, I'll be working a long weekend... a 100-hour weekend, to be exact. Here at NASA Goddard, we'll be taking part in a worldwide IYA event called the 100 Hours of Astronomy. This is an official event for IYA, and the goal is to get people to come out and participate in astronomy activities during a 100-hour period that's synchronized in every time zone around the world. We've filled our 100 hours with a wide variety of fun stuff to do, and hopefully I'll find enough time in between to get some sleep!

In the midst of all of the invitations, press releases, spreadsheets, and countless meetings about the 100 Hours of Astronomy, Maggie Masetti and I found time to put together an episode about... the 100 Hours of Astronomy! It took us a while to decide on an interview subject. But we realized the perfect person to talk to about this momentous occasion, Galileo Galilei himself. I don't know what else to say about that! But listen, enjoy, and check out the episode info for information about 100 Hours of Astronomy events around the world (and right here at Goddard).

March 3, 2009 - There's No Place Like Home... Yet

Check out the latest podcast episode, released today!

It took a couple of extra days to get our latest episode finished, thanks in part to our first real winter storm of the year! In Maryland, we definitely experience all four seasons. We get hot, humid summers and cold, crisp winters - plus occasionally some extreme weather like snow, hurricanes, and tornadoes. This "weather sampler" is a taste of everything in moderation, but it's generally a temperate and comfortable place to live.

I'm so used to this, I can't imagine living in a region with extreme climate fluctuations. When I visited Arizona, I sweated through days of 95°F or more... and then wore a sweater in the evenings when the temperature dropped by 20 or 30 degrees! I'm impressed that human beings can acclimate to desert climates, icy tundra, and places with dramatic and downright inhospitable weather.

Here at Goddard, researchers study planets - including those orbiting stars other than our own. We did a story on these exoplanets back in 2007, and scientists continue to discover new ones. You can track the current planet count at PlanetQuest. Details about these distant objects are sparse, but we generally know important details like their size and distance from the host star. From that, scientists can model their climates and whether they are likely to be rocky or gaseous. In other words - how much they are like (or unlike) the Earth and other planets in our Solar System.

The discovery of other planets out there fuels the search for life in the Universe other than on our own planet. With each new planet discovered, people wonder, "Could there be life on it?" For the planet we're talking about in the latest podcast, the answer is an emphatic, "No!" Planet HD 80606b has a wild elliptical orbit and an even wilder climate. It spends part of its 111-day orbit getting absolutely baked by the star, then down to comparatively cold temperatures when it moves farther away. This is likely to cause high winds and huge storms - and climate extremes that a wardrobe change won't remedy.

But perhaps this research will bring us closer to finding more hospitable planets, as we continue to look for Earthlike worlds out there. Bring your parka (and your swimsuit) just in case.

Febuary 17, 2009 - Zooming Through the Universe

Check out the latest podcast episode, released today!

Growing up just outside of Washington, DC, I didn't have many opportunities to observe the sky and see more than a handful of faint stars. It was exciting to go camping farther from the city and see so many more twinkling lights in the sky. And I always enjoyed my trips to the planetarium - a chance to see what the sky was supposed to look like!

Now, the internet makes the night sky accessible to anyone with a computer. A quick search provides constellation maps, high-resolution images of nearly any object, and brilliant panoramic pictures that you can explore for hours. I find myself looking at one object (the funny-looking galaxy M82 is one of my favorites) and then getting sidetracked, looking at the sky around it, looking farther, and then looking for something else entirely. The Universe is a big place! But these websites make it surprisingly approachable.

This month, we're focusing on one NASA website that makes a variety of different data collections accessible to anyone - SkyView. This one-stop-shop for astronomical images is a virtual telescope. You tell it where to point (in its database) and it takes you there. Want a different wavelength? You've got it! SkyView makes its data accessible to popular sites like Google Sky and WorldWide Telescope, too, so you've probably used SkyView without even knowing it.

One of the things that's always amazed me about NASA is the sheer volume of data that has been collected. While most of it is digital these days, there are still archives on tapes and reels. It's surreal to visit one of these archives and stand among racks and racks of old data, to consider how much of the Universe is surrounding you just in that room. Tools like SkyView have organized this information more efficiently than any physical archive could, and made it accessible to me and you in the process.

I hope you enjoy this episode and try out SkyView yourself. If you're wondering where to start... well, it's a great big Universe out there, so start looking!

January 29, 2009 - Confounding Cosmic Questions

Check out the latest podcast episode, released today!

Today's episode focuses on a surprising result found by a NASA balloon-borne experiment. We chose this story because it highlights the excitement and uncertainty in any scientific experiment - you never know what you'll find. Will your data support your predictions, contradict them, or point you in an entirely new direction? ARCADE was launched to look for the radio signals of the first stars in the Universe, but their detector found a strange, strong signal coming from deep space. What is it? Good question.

In a sense, science is the profession of asking, "Why?" It's not just blind questioning - scientists see something happening and ask questions about what's going on and why. And if they can find answers to those questions, there are always more details to explore. I think most human beings are innately curious. Especially as children, we want to know everything. What will happen if I take this toy apart? Will I float away if I attach enough balloons to my chair?

I think this is why people love a good mystery. It lets us explore a world of what-ifs and whodunnits. When scientists get an unexpected result, they start looking for the culprit. It could be as simple as an issue with a piece of hardware, or as complicated as a new discovery far away in space or way back in time. These surprises can shape the way we understand the Universe, and they definitely shape the way we think.

I hope you enjoy this episode. We're about to overhaul this website, so don't be surprised if you check back and find it looks a little different! Consider it a Blueshift experiment.

January 14, 2009 - We're Back!

Check out the latest podcast episode, released today!

If you've visited Blueshift before, you're probably wondering... hey, where have you been for the last year? We released six podcasts in 2007 but got a lot of mixed feedback from listeners about the content and structure. We decided to take some time off to re-think and get a better handle on our Blueshift audience and what they wanted. We asked questions - a lot of questions - and finally felt like we knew what you wanted us to create!

It seemed appropriate to tie our re-launch into the biggest astronomy project of 2009 - the International Year of Astronomy. IYA is a worldwide celebration of astronomy, in celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first look through a telescope. The main goal for 2009 is to make people aware of and interested in astronomy, and we want Blueshift to bring you our stories about exploring the Universe at the Astrophysics Division at Goddard. Our education and outreach team is developing a variety of different activities for IYA throughout the year (which I will highlight in my blog from time to time), and Blueshift is a key piece of that.

We're branching out from just a podcast to include a bunch of other content. Our podcast will come out twice a month, and we'll also feature blogs from different people here, downloadable content like images and videos, and some surprises that you'll just have to see! The site's going to grow as we keep adding new content, so follow our RSS feed or check back regularly to see what's new.

For our re-launch, I directed a podcast that celebrates another launch: last year's launch of the Fermi Observatory. We actually talked about Fermi in one of our early episodes, when it was still known as GLAST. This time, I wanted to tell the story of why we study gamma rays bursts - and how - through the voices of several scientists involved in the field. One of our team members had the opportunity to interview leading experts in the field, and I turned those interviews into a story about these "biggest bangs since the big bang."

It feels great to be back. So join us, throughout 2009 and beyond, to celebrate the Universe around us with Blueshift.