Mon May 9, 11
I finally joined Twitter!
Perhaps I will be better at microblogging than actually blogging. Follow me here. Hopefully, I will keep up this blog occasionally, too, though (please no jokes about my past track record in that department. ;)).
In recent news on my part, I’ve started a permanent job at NASA Goddard (woohooo!) working as a research astrophysicist. [...]
Fri May 6, 11
NASA announced key pre-selected Discovery Missions
Today NASA-JPL announced three future key missions preselected as part of the Discovery program named GEMS, TiME and Comet Hopper. This is an important announcement, which was anxiously expected by our community.
The NASA Discovery program is a low-cost mission ($425 million FY2010) program aiming at developing and support well-defined and narrow-range science mission in the [...]
Fri April 29, 11
Allen Array Telescope and the SETI Institute
My previous post on the hibernation of the Allen Array Telescope got a lot of attention and I have been contacted by various people to discuss its impact on the institute and on my research.
First of all, I should remind my readers that the SETI Institute is a research institution composed of three departments:
- [...]
Fri April 22, 11
Today the Allen Array Telescope is hibernating
First of all, a disclaimer. I am not NOT involved in the Allen Array Telescope, neither I conduct astronomical programs using radio telescopes. I am writing this post about the Allen Array Telescope (ATA) since it is a joint project effort by the SETI Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and I [...]
Sun April 17, 11
A wonderful concert by Glauco Venier in Cologne
Music has always been a relevant ingredient in my intellectual life. If I had to summarize it in a few words, I’d say I am not sure what I really am: a failed musician or a failed scientist
As you may remember, I have a very good and old friend, Glauco Venier. He is [...]
Sat April 16, 11
Back from the light design conference in Drammen - Norway
Busy days… things have [somewhat unexpectedly] changed in my professional life (I’ll blog about this when I’m settled. I just anticipate I’m still an astronomer ;-)), and this comes at a time where many other things are happening.
Our paper on the very old stars was re-submitted after the first pass of the second referee. Now [...]
Tue March 29, 11
NASA MESSENGER: Mercury has an orbiter (37 yrs after Venus)
I mentioned several times in my blog significant results obtained by MESSENGER, the NASA Discovery mission which had three flybys with the inner planet Mercury. Today after a successful orbit insertion on March 18, the spacecraft delivered its first science picture.
Even if I am not involved in the study of Mercury, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, [...]
Thu March 24, 11
Cygnus X-3 is flaring!
One thing about watching the sky - something is always happening. Today it is a binary system called Cygnus X-3 (named because it was the third X-ray source found in the constellation Cygnus). Cyg X-3 is its nickname. It’s a 4.8-hour binary system consisting of a Wolf-Rayet star and either a neutron star or a [...]
Tue March 1, 11
High Efficiency and Resolution Multi-Element Spectrograph
Ohh dear! Its only a few months short of being one whole year since I last posted…where did the time go? What was I doing all this time you ask? I think its fair to say I have been running between Heaven and Hell with HERMES
I introduced my role as HERMES project scientist in the [...]
Thu February 24, 11
Planet Formation in Action?
Amazing results from my friend Nuria Huélamo ….
From the ESO website:
“Using ESO's Very Large Telescope an international team of astronomers has been able to study the short-lived disc of material around a young star that is in the early stages of making a planetary system. For the first time a smaller companion [...]