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08.28.2018

NASA mathematician katherine johnson turns 100

Katherine Johnson, one of science’s most pioneering women, turned 100 years old on August 26. She worked at NASA as a computer, or calculator, helping plan the flight paths of the first flights into space. As an Black woman working she broke down barriers for women and minorities in the math and aerospace. NASA celebrated her with a tweet:

Her life and work were the subject of the popular movie Hidden Figures

10.03.2015

preserving mars

Dark streaks indicate the flow of water down Martian slopes. Photo from nasa.gov.

About a week ago, NASA presented compelling evidence of flowing water on The Red Planet. The water flows foster hope that there may yet be life to discover on Mars. Scientific American discusses the  hardest part of discovering the first Martians: preventing contamination from Earth.

The problem is not exploding rockets, shrinking budgets, political gamesmanship or fickle public support—all the usual explanations spaceflight advocates offer for the generations-spanning lapse in human voyages anywhere beyond low Earth orbit. Rather, the problem is life itself—specifically, the tenacity of Earthly microbes, and the potential fragility of Martian ones. The easiest way to find life on Mars, it turns out, may be to import bacteria from Cape Canaveral—contamination that could sabotage the search for native Martians.

Certain areas of Mars are designated as “Special Regions” by the Committee on Space Research, or COSPAR, and restricted from earthly visitors. These special regions appear to have the right topography and geothermal profiles to support life. By prohibiting visitors, astronomers hope to preserve any potential extraterrestrial life. But are these designations enough to protect Martian soil and species from Earth’s most relentless invaders?

Read more at Scientific American.

07.30.2015

buckyballs from outer space

 

Buckyball

Buckminsterfullerene, also known as C60 and buckyballs, are believed to cause interstellar absorption patterns that have confounded scientists for decades.

For at least 100 years scientists have been observing unknown absorption bands in outer space. These diffuse interstellar bands were of unknown origin, until just recently.

Astronomers have believed buckyballs, or fullerene to be behind the phenomena since the mid-90s. Fullerenes are molecular carbon, made of 60 carbon atoms and shaped like soccer balls or geodesic domes. The wavelengths of light that buckyballs absorbed when encased in an unreactive frozen solids were similar to the patterns observed in space. But, since they were unable to observe the molecules under space-like conditions, it was not possible to claim that they were the definite cause. Over the next 20 years, researchers have worked on observing C60 in space-like conditions. Now, John Maier has observed behavior of fullerene ions at close to absolute zero and under high vacuum.  They found spectral lines at wavelengths of 9577 and 9632 angstroms, which match the patterns seen in space. This result offers considerable evidence that the molecules are behind the bands. The research is published at Nature.

 

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