AAS and the Cosmos

It’s day one of the American Astronomical Society meeting, being held this week in Austin, Texas. Most of us from the colder climes are enjoying the little bits of shirtsleeve weather we’re having here, even though we’re mostly inside for talks and presentations.

The big news conference today was about the Hubble Space Telescope refurbishing mission, currently scheduled for later this year. Astronaut John Grunsfeld talked us through the mission sequence, and then demonstrated with a pair of astronaut gloves just how tough it’s going to be to accomplish parts of the mission.

There are other news stories being reported here today. As is my usual practice I’ll put some links here to them; later on I’ll be posting a little video about the meeting and how it’s going so far. Suffice to say, I’m psyched! It’s a week of great astronomy and cool topics! This pic shows just HOW psyched…

TheSpacewriter and the Bad Astronomer and the Astronaut Gloves

Here are today’s news stories:

• The National Optical Astronomy Observatory has a stunning new image the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant in the constellation Cygnus. Check it out!
• Elizabeth McGrath of the University of California, Santa Cruz, gave a very interesting presentation about some of the first massive galaxies to form in the universe. This is a very hot area of study right now as astronomers try to trace the evolution of structure (galaxies) in the cosmos.
• NASA’s Swift Satellite and Gemini Observatory are jointly probing a gamma-ray burst (GRB 070714B) that was detected in July, 2007. This work has put the age of the explosion farther back than astronomers previously thought short-burst GRBs were occurring.
• You can read here about mysterious “blue blobs” in space seen by Hubble Space Telescope.These are orphaned clusters of stars near larger galaxies.
• Finally, astronomers at Rutgers and Penn State universities have discovered galaxies in the distant universe that are ancestors of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

Okay, more later! Stay tuned.