Protostars in Messier 78, as seen by multiple observatories
Credit: NASA/ESA/ESO/JPL-Caltech/Max-Planck
The side-by-side images above depict protostars found in Messier 78, a reflection nebula found within the constellation Orion (but not the Orion Nebula, which is Messier 42). These are some of the youngest stars that astronomers have ever seen – some of them are still embedded deeply in a gaseous envelope, which would suggest that they’re under 25,000 years old. That may seem like a long time compared to our human lives… but for stars that can live for millions or billions of years, it’s still stellar infancy. These images accompanied this press release from the Herschel space observatory, and represent observations from Herschel as well as ground-based telescopes. Though they can be difficult to detect, researchers are hoping to document more young stars in various stages of life – from before birth through infancy – to learn more about the early development of stars.
NASA often looks at “young” astronomical objects, to learn more about the formation and evolution of the Universe. Here’s a selection of some beautiful and interesting cosmic baby pictures… Read more »
Voyager is soon to be the first man-made object to leave the solar system. Data from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that this deep space explorer has entered a region in space where the number of charged particles from beyond our solar system has significantly increased. This could mean that Voyager 1 may be at the edge of our solar system and about to leave it. The spacecraft Voyagers 1 and 2 were launched in 1977, originally designated to study Jupiter and Saturn, but have since continued their journey on to study the outer solar system. The image above depicts where the Voyager spacecraft are in relation to our solar system and the surrounding area.
The Voyager team is looking at a few specific things that they expect will tell them when the spacecraft has punched through the ‘heliosheath’ – a kind of bubble around our solar system where stellar winds slow down dramatically. First, a great increase in the number of galactic cosmic rays (energetic charged particles from outside our solar system). The numbers appear to be on the rise, which is a good sign that Voyager 1 is getting close to the heliosheath. The team is also looking at the intensity of energetic particles from inside the heliosphere. These have been steadily decreasing but have yet to drop off abruptly, as would be expected when the craft leaves the heliosphere. Lastly, there is the measurement of the direction of the magnetic field lines surrounding the spacecraft. Currently, while the craft remains in the heliosphere, the field lines run east-west. However, when it passes into interstellar space, it is thought that the field lines will switch to running more north-south. There is still much analysis of the data to be done, but we can still expect that one day Voyager will be our first man-made ambassador to interstellar space. Read more »
There’s a time in nearly every satellite’s life where a decision has to be made – continue or game over? For NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, this question arose when the satellite reached the end of its onboard frozen hydrogen coolant. This wasn’t a surprise, but WISE used that coolant to make its detectors more sensitive to infrared light. However, NASA decided to continue the mission. Even without coolant, two of WISE’s infrared detectors can still operate and look a little closer to home for comets and asteroids. This has been dubbed the NEOWISE Post-Cryogenic Mission. And there’s still plenty of data for scientists to study from the mission’s cooler period.
Okay, this is it! We’ve been running contests all week to give you a chance to win an awesome prize pack of NASA goodies that includes an exclusive WMAP beach ball signed by Nobel Laureate John Mather! All of the contests, including this one, close tonight at 5PM ET. So enter this one below… and if you haven’t entered all of the others, go back and do it!
Here’s your chance to enter the last contest. We’re going to make this one quick and easy:
Tell us what you’d like to see Blueshift cover.
We’ve had a great time talking about the WMAP beach ball and The Big Bang Theory, and it sounds like you’ve enjoyed it, too. What should we cover next? What behind-the-scenes stuff in astrophysics at Goddard do you want to hear about? Who should we interview? Post your suggestions as a comment on this entry.
Comments are moderated and we ask that you be respectful. No profanity please! Any comments with non-NASA links may be edited or removed. Please keep the political and religious humor to a minimum – as a NASA blog we’re steering clear of that. We’re also unable to publish comments that contain mature content.
Entries must be received by 5PM ET on Friday, October 1 (that’s tonight!). We’ll announce the winner next week and mail out the prizes!
Good luck, and enter all five contests this week for your best chance to win NASA goodies. These contests are open to everyone.
Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog entry are that of specific individuals and do not represent those of NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, or Blueshift.
There are only two days left to enter this week’s contests – including this one, there are four contests that you can enter until Friday at 5PM ET. Here’s your latest chance to win a prize pack of NASA stuff including a WMAP beach ball signed by Nobel Laureate John Mather! We’ll be throwing in all sorts of posters, stickers, and other surprises.
Here’s how to enter today’s contest! Tell us:
If you won one, what would you do with your very own WMAP beach ball?
Convince us that you have something cool or interesting to do with a WMAP beach ball, and maybe we’ll send you one! We just stuck one up on a shelf in the office, so you can probably do better than that. Post your idea as a comment on this entry.
Comments are moderated and we ask that you be respectful. No profanity please! Any comments with non-NASA links may be edited or removed. Please keep the political and religious humor to a minimum – as a NASA blog we’re steering clear of that. We’re also unable to publish comments that contain mature content. We’re trying to keep this all-ages!
Entries must be received by 5PM ET on Friday, October 1. We’ll announce the winner next week and mail out the prizes!
Good luck, and enter all five contests this week for your best chance to win NASA goodies. These contests are open to everyone.
Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog entry are that of specific individuals and do not represent those of NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, or Blueshift.
We’ve been getting some great entries into our first two contests – and you can still enter those until Friday at 5PM ET. It’s the third day of our special week of contests, and here’s your next chance to win a prize pack of NASA stuff including a WMAP beach ball signed in bold black ink by Nobel Laureate John Mather! (We can assure you that the permanent ink on these is quite permanent, as it didn’t wash off when we took one of the beach balls into the Pacific Ocean for our photos.)
Here’s how to enter today’s contest! Tell us:
What other NASA stuff could we put on a beach ball?
We’re always brainstorming about innovative ways to communicate NASA science, and we think that Chuck and Britt’s idea of putting WMAP data on a beach ball was pretty clever! But what else could go on a beach ball? Post your suggestion as a comment on this entry.
Comments are moderated and we ask that you be respectful. No profanity please! Any comments with non-NASA links may be edited or removed. Please keep the political and religious humor to a minimum – as a NASA blog we’re steering clear of that. We’re also unable to publish comments that contain mature content. We’re trying to keep this all-ages!
Entries must be received by 5PM ET on Friday, October 1. We’ll announce the winner next week and mail out the prizes!
Good luck, and enter all five contests this week for your best chance to win NASA goodies. These contests are open to everyone.
Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog entry are that of specific individuals and do not represent those of NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, or Blueshift.
You can still tell us your favorite joke about the Big Bang until Friday at 5PM ET, though you’ll have some stiff competition – there are some good ones coming in! But here’s your next chance to win a prize pack of NASA stuff including a WMAP beach ball signed by Nobel Laureate John Mather! We’re excited to have these to give away… and jealous, because the one in our office isn’t autographed!
As we mentioned yesterday, these beach balls are in five prize packs full of NASA goodies that we’re giving away every day this week. Here’s how to enter today’s contest:
Tell us what television show besides The Big Bang Theory should have a WMAP beach ball – and why!
Think that the beach ball would be a perfect prop for a musical number on Glee? Or maybe it could be evidence on Law & Order! The “why” is the most important part. Post your suggestion as a comment on this entry.
Comments are moderated and we ask that you be respectful. No profanity please! Any comments with non-NASA links may be edited or removed. Please keep the political and religious humor to a minimum – as a NASA blog we’re steering clear of that. We’re also unable to publish comments that contain mature content. We’re trying to keep this all-ages!
Entries must be received by 5PM ET on Friday, October 1. We’ll announce the winner next week and mail out the prizes!
Good luck, and keep watching for a new chance to enter every day this week. These contests are open to everyone.
Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog entry are that of specific individuals and do not represent those of NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, or Blueshift.
As soon as we started blogging about the WMAP beach ball and its appearance on the set of The Big Bang Theory, we started getting some comments and tweets asking, “How can I get one of those?”
The beach ball was produced for educational uses, so it’s available to teachers to use in the classroom. However, we got a few especially for Blueshift’s followers and listeners – and we even got them signed by Nobel Laureate John Mather! Dr. Mather shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on understanding the Big Bang. So these are some extra-special beach balls!
These beach balls will be part of five prize packs full of NASA goodies that we’re giving away every day this week. So you’ll have 5 chances to win one! Here’s how to enter today’s contest:
Tell us your favorite joke about the Big Bang!
Post your joke as a comment on this entry. Comments are moderated and we ask that you be respectful. No profanity please! Any comments with non-NASA links may be edited or removed. Edited to add: Please keep the political and religious humor to a minimum – as a NASA blog we’re steering clear of that. We’re also unable to publish comments that contain mature content. They’re funny jokes, it’s true, but we’re trying to keep this all-ages!
Entries must be received by 5PM ET on Friday, October 1. We’ll announce the winner next week and mail out the prizes!
Good luck, and keep an eye on the blog for a new chance to enter every day this week.
Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog entry are that of specific individuals and do not represent those of NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, or Blueshift.
In lieu of our usual weekly link round-up, we thought we’d share some photos from our visit to the set of The Big Bang Theory last week! During our visit, we were really impressed by the level of detail in the sets – they really nailed everything! It felt just like home to these three NASA geeks! These photos focus on the things (besides our WMAP beach ball) that really caught our eye as we took our tour.
[Sara's note: This is the original blog entry that sparked the roadtrip - the interview about the as-seen-on-TV beach ball that got us onto the Warner Brothers studio lot. How many beach balls can do that? This is part 2 of our Blueshift roadtrip series. We'll have the eagerly-anticipated Big Bang Theory set tour photos on Monday, in lieu of our weekly link round-up... and contests every day next week!]
Part of the fun of going to professional meetings is getting swag. You know what we mean – pens, USB drives, stress balls… once I even got some NASA hand sanitizer (true story!). I’ve also been on the other end of these convention giveaways. How do you choose something that has meaning? What if you want to go beyond a toy that someone will give to their kids or throw away in their hotel room – but that will actually have value? And furthermore, can you take something that seems like a giveaway toy, and turn it into a teaching tool?
Britt Griswold, who works on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), did just that. He took WMAP’s famous image of the early microwave universe and put it on a beach ball. Additionally, this beach ball can be seen in Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment on the hit TV show about NASA nerds much like us, The Big Bang Theory! We spoke to him about why and how in this exclusive interview.
Blogs | Sara Mitchell | 
March 22, 2013 4:15 pm | 
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