Cool Online Outreach in Astronomy

Astrocast.TV and Me

Welcome to The Astronomer's Universe!

As anybody who’s surfed the Web any length of time at all knows, there’s a bounty of information out there about astronomy and space exploration. It seems that every time I turn around there’s a new web site or blog or online media presence devoted to the subjects.

Of course, long-time readers here know that I’ve been blogging and writing about astronomy-related topics online since the mid-1990s.  It’s a fun gig and for some years now, it’s been part of my regular job as vice-president of Loch Ness Productions — a production company my husband and I started some years back.  We produce fulldome video shows (for fulldome planetarium theaters). I’ve written more than two dozen shows over the years and am working on new ones as we speak. Recently, we branched out to create vodcasts and podcasts for such clients as the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and Haystack Observatory. We also sponsored and produced for the 365 Days of Astronomy project in 2009, and I’m producing more podcasts for the project in 2010.

In addition to my multimedia projects, I’ve also written exhibits for Griffith Observatory and the California Academy of Sciences, and am working on a set of exhibits for NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I have worked on a wide variety of other materials that help museums and science centers and observatories bring the wonders of astronomy and space exploration to anybody who’s interested in learning about it.  That’s my day (and night) job, and it’s so darned cool that I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world!  If it’s about astronomy and space exploration — I get to write about it in whatever media I wish.

Which brings me to another cool outreach effort I’ve been involved in for almost a year now –  an online “TV” segment about what astronomers are observing and learning. Last year, I wrote a short little space-related article for the New York Times and that led to my being contacted by the producer of Astrocast.TV, an online news magazine about astronomy and space science that shows up on the first of each month. After some discussion, I agreed to become the producer of a segment called The Astronomer’s Universe.

I’ve worked on seven segments so far, and two more will show up in February highlighting the recent American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.   Here’s a little promo video featuring our series host Solar System Ambassador Greg Redfern, talking about each of our segments.  Check it out and then make Astrocast.TV a regular stop in your astronomy and space science web-surfing routine!  I especially urge you to check out our February 1st episode, which will feature not only my AAS interviews, but a special segment on Earth science, created by another Astrocast.TV producer, Bente Lilje Bye!

Mars Spirit Rover Ain’t Dead Yet!

She’s Going to be a Stationary Platform

The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit

What’s a planetary scientist to do when a rover gets stuck in the sand after six years of exploration, is still working well, but can’t move anymore? You turn it into a stationary research platform. NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has ended six years of roving in a sand pit and will now become a fixed science platform.  After it works itself into position to survive the Martian winter so that it can get more sunlight on its solar panels, the rover will ride out the severe weather and begin doing a class of science that can only be done by a freestanding set of instruments.

For example, Spirit is already studying tiny wobbles in the rotation of Mars over time. This allows scientists some valuable insight about the composition of the planet’s core. It’s not something that can be done overnight — it requires months of radio-tracking the motion of a point on the surface of Mars to calculate long-term motion with an accuracy of a few inches. And, since Spirit is now a “point” on the surface, it’s in a perfect position to do this work.  If Spirit continues working, it will help determine whether the core of Mars is liquid or solid — a question that is still unanswered.

Tools on the rover’s robotic arm can also study variations in the composition of nearby soil, which has been affected by water. And, as we do hear on Earth with fixed weather stations, the Spirit rover can monitor the weather and watch how the constant Martian winds move soil across the surface.

I think it’s a wonderful chapter in the rover’s life, which has been longer than anybody expected. It’s also a tribute to the folks at Jet Propulsion Laboratory who built it and continued to guide the rover around the planet until Spirit got stuck in a sandpit last year. A perfect example of making the best of what could have been a truly bad situation and coming out ahead!

What’s Your Pixel Pleasure at Mars?

Picture Suggestions Welcome

Symmetry in dune formations on Mars. From the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera.

Do you have a place you’d like to see “up close and personal” on Mars? If so, the folks running the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter want to hear from you. This is a very cool project for what has often been called the “people’s camera” on the long-running Mars mission. The idea is to engage people more closely with Mars exploration — and what better way than to challenge the public come up with ideas for places to explore with this wonderful camera?

The HiRISE team created an online tool called HiWISH that lets you examine Mars maps to see where images have been taken, where imaging will take place in the future. You use that to find areas where you want to explore that haven’t been covered — then you write up image suggestion.  You will be asked to give the observation a title, put it into a science theme like volcanism, seasonal change, or impacts, and explain why it’s important scientifically to observe the region of interest.

I’m sure that the team will get many thousands of suggestions for images of specific Mars sites. Their job will be to prioritize the images and evaluate them for good science.  The more scientifically relevant your suggestion is, the better chance your “imaging program” will get sent to the spacecraft.  Eventually, thousands of targets from scientists and the public will be imaged when the orbital track and other conditions are right.

If you want to explore Mars via image suggestions in this very cool program, head on over to the mission suggestion page.

Let’s get out there and do some good Mars science, everybody!