[Faith's blog] Beauty is in the Ear of the Beholder

It’s summertime once again here at Goddard, and summer means two things: mixing it up a bit with a special summer Blueshift series and summer interns. I’m Faith, back for another summer at Goddard, and considering I’m a recent college grad freshly released from my liberal arts college, it seemed only appropriate to use this summer on Blueshift to delve into the surprisingly interdisciplinary world of astrophysics at NASA. But wait! Don’t let the distinct un-summeriness of the word ‘interdisciplinary’ scare you away – think of it instead as a summer stroll through the lesser known branches of astrophysics . You may just be surprised by the astrophysical relevance of that Philosophy or Studio Art major that seemed like such a good idea when you were eighteen…

First, a little quiz to kick us off:

What do Jodie Foster’s character in Contact, 20^th century composer Gustav Holst and pop-culture icon David Bowie have in common?

a) Perfectly tousled blonde locks

b) A propensity for wearing extravagantly ruffled shirts and leather pants

c) A tendency to express their love of astronomy and/or space exploration through sound

d) A deeply engrained passion for astrology, vegetarianism, and madrigal music

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[Blog] Weekly 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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[podcast] The Music of Science

Click to listen! (6.7MB MP3, right-click to save)
Transcript (Text, PDF)

The evening of November 2, 2009 was the world premiere of “Cosmic Reflection,” an orchestral composition inspired by one of NASA’s satellites, in Washington, DC. This opus began as a simple prelude inspired by (and performed by a brass quintet at) the launch of the GLAST mission. To celebrate the first birthday of this satellite (since renamed Fermi), composer Dr. Nolan Gasser wrote a symphony which uses music to aurally portray the history of the universe.

We were able to go backstage at the Kennedy Center on the day of the performance to speak to a few of the people involved in this project, including the composer, the producer, a NASA scientist, and the “voice” of Cosmic Reflection.

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