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Meet the astronomers. See where they work. Know what they know.


The Project:

The Cosmic Diary is not just about astronomy. It's more about what it is like to be an astronomer.

The Cosmic Diary aims to put a human face on astronomy: professional scientists will blog in text and images about their lives, families, friends, hobbies and interests, as well as their work, their latest research findings and the challenges that face them. The bloggers represent a vibrant cross-section of female and male working astronomers from around the world, coming from five different continents. Outside the observatories, labs and offices they are musicians, mothers, photographers, athletes, amateur astronomers. At work, they are managers, observers, graduate students, grant proposers, instrument builders and data analysts.

Throughout this project, all the bloggers will be asked to explain one particular aspect of their work to the public. In a true exercise of science communication, these scientists will use easy-to-understand language to translate the nuts and bolts of their scientific research into a popular science article. This will be their challenge.

Task Group:

Mariana Barrosa (Portugal, ESO ePOD)
Nuno Marques (Portugal, Web Developer)
Lee Pullen (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
André Roquette (Portugal, ESO ePOD)

Jack Oughton (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
Alice Enevoldsen (USA, Pacific Science Center)
Alberto Krone Martins (Brazil, Uni. S. Paulo / Uni. Bordeaux)
Kevin Govender (South Africa, S. A. A. O.)
Avivah Yamani (Indonesia, Rigel Kentaurus)
Henri Boffin (Belgium, ESO ePOD)

Quote of the Day

“Gamma rays are the 800 pound gorillas of photons”

- Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer in his post The Hulking Sky.  

 

If that isn’t awesome enough for you, he even adds this qualifier:

“Come to think of it, if you could actually turn an 800 pound gorilla into photon, it really would be a gamma ray. When you convert an object into energy (which is what a photon really is), the amount of energy you get out is huge for even a tiny amount of mass. An 800 pound gorilla, converted into energy, would explode with the same yield as about 8000 one-megaton nuclear bombs. By definition, any photon above about 500,000 times the energy of a visible light photon is a gamma ray, so if you could somehow squish all that energy from the suddenly energized simian, it would be a gamma ray. And it would be really ticked off.”

Phil’s blog is truly fantastic, so I urge you to read it if you don’t already.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 5:05 pm and is filed under Astronomy, Awesome stuff, Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1
  1. Andrew
    March 25th, 2009 at 10:25 am

    Phil is awesome. I remember writing to him back in the days before his world-wide fame, supporting his previous website, and he wrote a really nice message back. Not just a bad astronomer, but a really nice guy to boot!

    Your posts are great Claire as well. Really enjoy reading about your fascinating career.