NASA - Lab Out Loud

Entries Tagged ‘NASA’

Episode 29 – We're All Stellar Corpses

Posted on March 30, 2009 in Episodes by Brian

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Dr. Michelle Thaller

Our guest this week is Dr. Michelle Thaller. A research scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Thaller is currently the Manager of the Education and Public Outreach program for the Spitzer Space Telescope. Thaller talks to us about Spitzer, infrared light, and our origins in stellar corpses.

I have always had a deep respect for people who can take complex ideas and make them seem profoundly simple and elegant. Instinctually, I’ve always felt that wisdom and eloquence are related. It’s not just what you say, but now effectively you communicate the inner workings of your mind to another human being.

-Dr. Michelle Thaller, from Spitzer Profile

Videos about our origins in stars:

Direct download: LOL29.mp3

Bad Astronomer helps MythBusters go to the Moon

Posted on August 26, 2008 in blog by Dale

First a Lab Out Loud guest, then president of James Randi Educational Foundation and now he joins the MythBusters! It’s a great time to be the Bad Astronomer. (sorry PZ, but this round goes to Phil)

Catch skeptic Phil Plait help the MythBusters battle those pesky moon landing “hoaxes” on Wednesday August 27th.

Episode 3 – Steve Squyres and Roving Mars

Posted on November 05, 2007 in Episodes by Brian

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Steve Squyres

This week we talk with Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rover Project, & Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Preview from the show:

We have been so incredibly lucky with this mission. I mean, to have that dead wheel, which we thought was a catastrophe at the time, turn up one of the most exciting discoveries of the mission, was very good fortune.

The next big thing, at least in mars exploration, along with the continuing adventures of the rovers, is a mission called Phoenix. And Phoenix is a lander mission that’s going to land near the north polar region of mars, and is going to dig down into the soil there, hope to find ice and then, scoop up some of that ice, and put it into a little chemistry set on top of the lander, and find out what’s inside of that ice.

What we’ve tried to do is provide images, provide curriculum materials, and provide information for educators as we go. And I think that’s actually the best way to do it, because the thing that makes this exciting is not reading about it in the historical sense after the mission’s over, so much as being an active participant – you know following the mission as it’s going along. You can go to our website, and you can download the latest pictures from Mars that have come down in the last day or so.

Links: