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kellylepo

@kellylepo@astrodon.social

Astronomer | Science communicator | Adult Lisa Simpson
Education and Outreach Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute supporting JWST
Personal account — Views are my own

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kellylepo , to random
@kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

I went on a tour of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center today with a group of students. The highlight was seeing (parts of) the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope being tested in the massive clean room.

From left to right, we see the spacecraft bus (where the computers, communications equipment, and propellent are housed), spare solar panels, and the coronagraph instrument (under the silver tent thing, near the wall of air filters).

Closeup of the Roman telescope bus. A white metal structure holds a metal cylindrical ring with ridges. Behind this is the six-sided telescope bus structure. It is covered in shiny, metallic kapton, and has several smaller red boxes are connected by wires.
In the foreground, three people, dressed in white, protective "bunny suits", work on the back half of the telescope bus. It is a large, metal plate that is being held up by supports on its side, like a portable chalkboard. The people working on it have to stand on a stepladder to reach the top. Many pieces of equipment, which look like boxes wrapped like presents are fixed to the metal plate. In the middle of the clean room, near the left edge of the frame, are two people in bunny suits. One waves to the camera. In the background are the spare solar panels, arranged like a huge room dividing panel screen. The panels are at least twice the height of the people standing next to them. They are arranged three across and two high.
Equipment sits in the NASA Goddard clean room, a large, 4-story white room. On the right wall are rows of orange squares, which are a wall of air filters. In the bottom right corner of the frame is a rectangular, silvery tent-like structure that is open in the front. Inside is the coronograph instrument, which is wrapped in metallic kapton, and sitting inside a white metal support.

A panorama shows the NASA Goddard clean room, a large, 4-story white room. In the room are several metal tables, testing equipment, scissor lifts, and parts of the telescope. The NASA Goddard logo is on the back wall. Several people are working, dressed head to toe in "bunny suits", white protective suits used to control contamination.
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    • elizabethtasker , to random
    @elizabethtasker@mastodon.online avatar

    A tight flight connection that I’m surprisingly (after a late takeoff) going to make, but am more skeptical about my bag!

    May end up giving my in-person talk on Monday online from my hotel room, wrapped in a bed sheet 🤔

    kellylepo ,
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    @elizabethtasker I'm glad your bag made it.

    An airline employee once told me "bags move faster than people," and I've generally found this to be true.

    kellylepo , to random
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    Hubble is back doing science!

    Here is one of the first new images has taken since transitioning to one-gyro mode and restarting science operations June 14.

    It features the lenticular galaxy NGC 1546, a member of the Dorado group of galaxies, about 58 million light years away.

    https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-026

    At center is a lenticular galaxy, tilted so that the disk-like galaxy forms an oval shape. The galaxy's orientation gives us a good view of the dust lanes from slightly above and backlit by the galaxy's core. This dust absorbs light from the core, reddening it and making the dust appear rusty-brown. The core itself glows brightly in a yellowish light. Brilliant-blue regions sparkle through the dust. Several background galaxies also are visible, including an edge-on spiral to the left.
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    • alice , to random
    @alice@lgbtqia.space avatar

    I just went on a follow-fest for women with a PhD, but realized I'm already mutuals with almost everyone who shows up in the limited search results 😋

    If you're a Dr. Gal or other female science communicator type, pop into the thread, say hi!

    I'd love to learn about what you do 💜
    (and I'm sure lots of others would too)

    (on Tuesday)

    kellylepo ,
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    @alice I have a PhD in astrophysics, and I talk about spaaaace!

    kellylepo , to random
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    Millennial telescope tries to celebrate 34th birthday, but instead goes into safe mode because of gyroscope issues (relatable).

    The same gyroscope that was causing issues back in November is acting up again, so Hubble has paused science operations while operators troubleshoot the issue. If needed, Hubble can operate with only one of its three remaining gyroscopes, with reduced observing efficiency.

    https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-pauses-science-due-to-gyro-issue/

    kellylepo OP ,
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    ... And it's back. resumed science operations yesterday.

    It's using all three gyroscopes, all of the instruments are online, and it's taking science observations. Huzzah!

    https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-pauses-science-due-to-gyro-issue/

    kellylepo , to random
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    Happy Birthday ! It was launched April 24, 1990 from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

    This year's anniversary image is of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, or M76.

    M76 is a planetary nebula, a glowing cloud of gas ejected by a sun-like star at the end of its lifetime. The central bar structure is actually a ring seen edge-on. This was likely sculpted by a binary companion star. Two lobes extend from the bar to the left and right of the ring.

    More: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-013

    The black background of space is scattered with gold-colored stars, some with four-point spikes. At the center, and taking up most of the image, is a nebula appearing as two translucent orbs attached by a white band. The orbs shine with blue, red, and orange cloud-like material, with some tendrils of fading colors floating away into space from the edges of both orbs, like loops of smoke. Where the two orbs are bonded, the red, blue, and orange colors are blocked by a thick semi-transparent white vertical structure.
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    • kellylepo OP ,
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    A video tour of 's 34th anniversary image of M76, the Little Dumbbell Nebula.

    🎞️ https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/2024/013/01HVPERG96SK2NTF0MHGFRB7FD?news=true

    A Tour of Messier 76. The video begins with a wide shot of the nebula. A rectangle of space with a black background scattered with gold-colored stars, some with four-point spikes. At the center, and taking up most of the image, is a nebula appearing as two translucent orbs attached by a white band. The orbs shine with blue, red, and orange cloud-like material, with some tendrils of fading colors floating away into space from the edges of both orbs, like loops of smoke. Where the two orbs are bonded, the red, blue, and orange colors are blocked by a thick semi-transparent white vertical structure. Pan to the central bar, then out to show the two lobes with semi-circle dotted lines to indicating their location to the left and right of the bar. Zoom into the very center of the nebula to a tiny white point surrounded by pink and blue gas, circled with a white line. This is the white dwarf. Zoom out and pan to a small linear feature near the bottom left of the nebula, which looks like a comet pointing towards the center of the nebula. Then pan over to the center right edge of the nebula, showing a similar comet-like feature. Zoom out to the full image.

    kellylepo , to random
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) was able to observe the April 8 partial solar eclipse from Maui.

    https://nso.edu/blog/the-eclipse-as-seen-by-the-daniel-k-inouye-solar-telescope-in-maui/

    The surface of the Sun fills the frame. It is covered in granules, cells with yellow interiors and orange boundaries. It looks somewhat like a large pile of dried corn kernels. The Moon, seen as a black shape with a slightly serrated edge, cuts diagonally, filling the upper left quarter of the frame. It gradually moves up and to the left.

    kellylepo , to random
    @kellylepo@astrodon.social avatar

    Question for people who regularly use alt text. How would you prefer someone to describe the relative size of something, like the core of a galaxy compared to the total galaxy, or an area of an abstract painting?

    Should the description be something like: "one-ninth the size of the total frame", or "no larger than an enclosed fist held up to a large screen", or something else?

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