A Blast from the Past

By Catherine, on June 10th, 2011%

Late last month, space and astronomy blogs and news sources were abuzz over the discovery of what may be the most distant event ever detected in the Universe.

The event was something referred to as a Gamma Ray Burst officially designated as GRB 090429B, and it was detected by the ‘Burst Alert Telescope’ which is part of NASA’s ‘Swift’ space satellite. The satellite, launched in 2004, orbits at an altitude of 600 km above the Earth.  Here, I take a closer look at what a “gamma ray burst” really is and why this observation is interesting.

A whole . . .

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3 comments   Astronomy, Astrophysics, Science, Space Exploration, Spacecraft   , , , , , , , ,  

Fermi’s bubble find baffles astronomers

By Catherine, on November 16th, 2010%

This week NASA’s Fermi space telescope made a discovery that is perplexing scientists around the world.  Fermi is a space telescope which detects gamma ray radiation - the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation. In fact it is billions of times more energetic than the type of light visible to our eyes.

The Electromagnetic Spectrum.

This means that Fermi sees the immense energy of the most exotic and energetic phenomenon in our Universe: super massive black holes,  pulsars and streams of hot gas travelling at close to the speed of light.   This week Fermi and the astronomers at the Harvard . . .

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4 comments   Science, Uncategorized   , , , , , , , ,  

Beatrice Tinsley: Extraordinary and Profound

By Catherine, on March 24th, 2010%

Today is Ada Lovelace day – an international day of blogging to draw attention to, and to celebrate the achievements of women in the fields of technology and science.

I’m not sure I can aptly express how important I believe it is as scientists that we use every opportunity we are given (and to make those opportunities ourselves) to showcase the ability of women and to encourage a continuing and ever strengthening contribution of women in scientific fields. I believe this because I think we are at a critical point where we have young girls and women experiencing . . .

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3 comments   Science, Women in Science   , ,