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How NASA Spotted El Niño Changing the Saltiness of Coastal Waters
New findings have revealed a coastal realm highly sensitive to changes in runoff and rainfall on land.
After helping stoke record heat in 2023 and drenching major swaths of the United States this winter, the current El Niño is losing steam this spring. Scientists have observed another way that the climate phenomenon can leave its mark on the planet: altering the chemistry of coastal waters.
A team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California used satellite observations to track the dissolved salt content, or salinity, of the global ocean surface for a decade, from 2011 to 2022. At the sea surface, salinity patterns can tell us a lot about how freshwater falls, flows, and evaporates between the land, ocean, and atmosphere – a process known as the water cycle.
The JPL team showed that year-to-year-variations in salinity near coastlines strongly correlate with El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the collective term for El Niño and its counterpart, La Niña. ENSO affects weather around the world in contrasting ways. El Niño, linked to warmer-than-average ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, can lead to more rain and snowfall than normal in the southwestern U.S., as well as drought in Indonesia. These patterns are somewhat reversed during La Niña.
During the exceptional El Niño event of 2015, for example, the scientists traced a particularly distinct global water cycle effect: Less precipitation over land led to a decrease in river discharge on average, which in turn led to notably higher salinity levels in areas as far as 125 miles (200 kilometers) from shore.
Instruments in space can track how salinity varies by region and season. Using NASA satellite data, this map shows how monsoon rains and freshwater flowing into the Bay of Bengal keep it far less salty than the Arabian Sea to the west. (Areas of low and high salinity are shown in blue and yellow, respectively.)NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio The Amazon River delivers millions of gallons of water to the ocean every second – enough to change global average surface salinity. A plume of low salinity water is shown here in dark blue, drifting away from the river mouth on ocean currents. The blue blob to the northwest is the Orinoco River plume.NASA’s Scientific Visualization StudioAt other times, the opposite was found: Areas with higher-than-normal rainfall over land saw increased river discharge, reducing salinity near those coasts.
“We’re able to show coastal salinity responding to ENSO on a global scale,” said lead author Severine Fournier, an ocean physicist at JPL.
The team found that salinity is at least 30 times more variable in these dynamic zones near coasts than in the open ocean. The link between rain, rivers, and salt is especially pronounced at the mouths of large river systems such as the Mississippi and Amazon, where freshwater plumes can be mapped from space as they gush into the ocean.
Salt as SignalWith global warming, researchers have been observing changes in the water cycle, including increases in extreme precipitation events and runoff. At the intersection of land and sea, coastal waters may be where the impacts are most detectable.
“Given the sensitivity to rainfall and runoff, coastal salinity could serve as a kind of bellwether, indicating other changes unfolding in the water cycle,” Fournier said.
She noted that some of the world’s coastal waters are not well studied, despite the fact that about 40% of the human population lives within about 60 miles (100 kilometers) of a coastline. One reason is that river gauges and other on-sitemonitors can be costly to maintain and cannot provide coverage of the whole planet, especially in more remote regions.
That’s where satellite instruments come in. Launched in 2011, the Aquarius mission made some of the first space-based global observations of sea surface salinity using extremely sensitive radiometers to detect subtle changes in the ocean’s microwave radiation emissions. Aquarius was a collaboration between NASA and Argentina’s space agency, CONAE (Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales).
Today, two higher-resolution tools – the ESA (European Space Agency) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission and NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission – allow scientists to zoom to within 25 miles (40 kilometers) of coastlines.
Using data from all three missions, the researchers found that surface salinity in coastal waters reached a maximum global average (34.50 practical salinity units, or PSU) each March and fell to a minimum global average (34.34 PSU) around September. (PSU is roughly equal to parts per thousand grams of water.) River discharge, especially from the Amazon, drives this timing.
In the open ocean, the cycle is different, with surface salinity reaching a global average minimum (34.95 PSU) from February to April and a global average maximum (34.97 PSU) from July to October. The open ocean does not show as much variability between seasons or years because it contains a significantly larger volume of water and is less sensitive to river discharge and ENSO. Instead, changes are governed by planet-scale precipitation minus total global evaporation, plus other factors like large-scale ocean circulation.
The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
NASA Analysis Sees Spike in 2023 Global Sea Level Due to El Niño NASA Analysis Finds Strong El Niño Could Bring Extra Floods This Winter News Media ContactsJane J. Lee / Andrew Wang
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0307 / 626-379-6874
jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov
Written by Sally Younger
2024-035
Share Details Last Updated Apr 03, 2024 Related Terms Explore More 5 min read Rock Sampled by NASA’s Perseverance Embodies Why Rover Came to Mars Article 8 hours ago 9 min read Veronica T. Pinnick Put NASA’s PACE Mission through Its Paces Article 1 day ago 5 min read NASA’s Europa Clipper Survives and Thrives in ‘Outer Space’ on Earth Article 1 week agoNASA Invites Media to Annual FIRST Robotics Competition in Rocket City
2 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Students from the Power Struck Girls Team 5965 – an all-girls FIRST Robotics team from the Academy of Our Lady high school in Marrero, Louisiana, and sponsored by NASA’s Stennis Space Center – make final engineering adjustments to their robot during the 2023 Rocket City Regional FIRST Robotics tournaments in Huntsville.NASA/Joel WallaceThe Rocket City Regional – Alabama’s annual For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition – is scheduled for Friday, April 5, through Saturday, April 6, at the Von Braun Center South Hall in Huntsville, Alabama, known as the Rocket City. This event is free for the public.
FIRST Robotics is a global robotics competition for students in grades 9-12. Teams are challenged to raise funds, design a team brand, hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-sized robots to play a difficult field game against competitors.
More than 1,000 high school students on 47 teams from 10 states and 4 countries will compete in a new robotics game called, “CRESCENDO.”
Opening ceremonies begin at 8:30 a.m. CDT followed by qualification matches on April 5 and April 6. The Friday awards ceremony will begin at 6 p.m., while the Saturday awards ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m.
District and regional competitions – such as the Rocket City Regional – are held across the country during March and April, providing teams a chance to qualify for the 2024 FIRST Robotics Competition Championship events held in late April in Houston.
NASA and its Robotics Alliance Project provide grants for high school teams and support for FIRST Robotics competitions to address the critical national shortage of students pursuing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers. This FIRST Robotics Competition, The Rocket City Regional, is supported by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement.
News media interested in covering this event should respond no later than 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 4 by contacting Taylor Goodwin at 256-544-0034 or taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov.
Learn more about the Rocket City Regional event.
Find more information about Marshall’s support for education programs:
https://www.nasa.gov/marshall/marshall-stem-engagement/
Taylor Goodwin
256-544-0034
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
taylor.goodwin@nasa.gov
On Monday, April 8, NASA and its partners will celebrate the wonders of the total…
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NASA’s Webb Probes an Extreme Starburst Galaxy
Amid a site teeming with new and young stars lies an intricate substructure.
A team of astronomers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to survey the starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82). Located 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, this galaxy is relatively compact in size but hosts a frenzy of star formation activity. For comparison, M82 is sprouting new stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way galaxy.
Led by Alberto Bolatto at the University of Maryland, College Park, the team directed Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument toward the starburst galaxy’s center, attaining a closer look at the physical conditions that foster the formation of new stars.
“M82 has garnered a variety of observations over the years because it can be considered as the prototypical starburst galaxy,” said Bolatto, lead author of the study. “Both NASA’s Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have observed this target. With Webb’s size and resolution, we can look at this star-forming galaxy and see all of this beautiful, new detail.”
Image: M82 observed by the Hubble and Webb Telescopes On the left is the starburst galaxy M82 as observed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in 2006. The small box at the galaxy’s core corresponds to the area captured so far by the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The red filaments as seen by Webb are the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission, which traces the shape of the galactic wind. In the Hubble image, light at .814 microns is colored red, .658 microns is red-orange, .555 microns is green, and .435 microns is blue (filters F814W, F658N, F555W, and F435W, respectively). In the Webb image, light at 3.35 microns is colored red, 2.50 microns is green, and 1.64 microns is blue (filters F335M, F250M, and F164N, respectively). NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Bolatto (University of Maryland) A Vibrant Community of StarsStar formation continues to maintain a sense of mystery because it is shrouded by curtains of dust and gas, creating an obstacle in observing this process. Fortunately, Webb’s ability to peer in the infrared is an asset in navigating these murky conditions. Additionally, these NIRCam images of the very center of the starburst were obtained using an instrument mode that prevented the very bright source from overwhelming the detector.
While dark brown tendrils of heavy dust are threaded throughout M82’s glowing white core even in this infrared view, Webb’s NIRCam has revealed a level of detail that has historically been obscured. Looking closer toward the center, small specks depicted in green denote concentrated areas of iron, most of which are supernova remnants. Small patches that appear red signify regions where molecular hydrogen is being lit up by a nearby young star’s radiation.
“This image shows the power of Webb,” said Rebecca Levy, second author of the study at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “Every single white dot in this image is either a star or a star cluster. We can start to distinguish all of these tiny point sources, which enables us to acquire an accurate count of all the star clusters in this galaxy.”
Finding Structure in Lively ConditionsLooking at M82 in slightly longer infrared wavelengths, clumpy tendrils represented in red can be seen extending above and below the galaxy’s plane. These gaseous streamers are a galactic wind rushing out from the core of the starburst.
One area of focus for this research team was understanding how this galactic wind, which is caused by the rapid rate of star formation and subsequent supernovae, is being launched and influencing its surrounding environment. By resolving a central section of M82, scientists could examine where the wind originates, and gain insight on how hot and cold components interact within the wind.
Webb’s NIRCam instrument was well-suited to trace the structure of the galactic wind via emission from sooty chemical molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs can be considered as very small dust grains that survive in cooler temperatures but are destroyed in hot conditions.
Much to the team’s surprise, Webb’s view of the PAH emission highlights the galactic wind’s fine structure – an aspect previously unknown. Depicted as red filaments, the emission extends away from the central region where the heart of star formation is located. Another unanticipated find was the similar structure between the PAH emission and that of hot, ionized gas.
“It was unexpected to see the PAH emission resemble ionized gas,” said Bolatto. “PAHs are not supposed to live very long when exposed to such a strong radiation field, so perhaps they are being replenished all the time. It challenges our theories and shows us that further investigation is required.”
Video: Tour of the M82 Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Lighting a Path ForwardWebb’s observations of M82 in near-infrared light spur further questions about star formation, some of which the team hopes to answer with additional data gathered with Webb, including that of another starburst galaxy. Two other papers from this team characterizing the stellar clusters and correlations among wind components of M82 are almost finalized.
In the near future, the team will have spectroscopic observations of M82 from Webb ready for their analysis, as well as complementary large-scale images of the galaxy and wind. Spectral data will help astronomers determine accurate ages for the star clusters and provide a sense of timing for how long each phase of star formation lasts in a starburst galaxy environment. On a broader scale, inspecting the activity in galaxies like M82 can deepen astronomers’ understanding of the early universe.
“Webb’s observation of M82, a target closer to us, is a reminder that the telescope excels at studying galaxies at all distances,” said Bolatto. “In addition to looking at young, high-redshift galaxies, we can look at targets closer to home to gather insight into the processes that are happening here – events that also occurred in the early universe.”
These findings have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
DownloadsRight click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.
Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
These findings have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
More about starburst galaxy M82
More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/
More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/
Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/
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Share Details Last Updated Apr 03, 2024 EditorStephen SabiaContactLaura Betzlaura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms65 Years Ago: NASA Selects America’s First Astronauts
On Nov. 5, 1958, NASA, newly established to lead America’s civilian space program, formally established the Space Task Group (STG) at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to implement one of the nation’s top priorities – to develop a spacecraft capable of sending humans into space and returning them safely to Earth. In January 1959, the STG selected a contractor to build the spacecraft for Project Mercury and began the process of choosing who would fly the spacecraft. President Dwight D. Eisenhower directed NASA to choose its first astronauts from among the ranks of military pilots. The three-month rigorous process led to the selection on April 2, 1959, of seven men from among America’s military branches. The agency presented them to the world on April 9 as America’s Mercury 7 astronauts.
Left: The headquarters building for the Space Task Group at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Right: An early cutaway representation of the Mercury capsule.
President Eisenhower decided that military test pilots would make the most suitable astronauts. Choosing from among armed forces personnel would expedite the selection process since the government had access to their records and all had received prior security clearances and medical screening. On Jan. 5, 1959, NASA established the qualifications for the astronauts: less than 40 years of age; less than 5 feet 11 inches tall; excellent physical condition; bachelor’s degree or equivalent; graduate of test pilot school; and 1,500 hours of jet flight time. A screening in late January of the files of 508 graduates of the Navy and Air Force test pilot schools who met the basic age and flying requirements resulted in 110 qualified candidates. The selection committee ranked these candidates and divided them into three groups of about 35 each. The first two groups, comprising 69 candidates, received classified briefings at the Pentagon about the Mercury spacecraft and their potential participation. From this group, 53 volunteered for further evaluation and NASA decided not to call in the third group of candidates. Following an initial medical screening, 32 from this group advanced to undergo thorough medical evaluations at the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research, commonly known as the Lovelace Clinic, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Beginning on Feb. 7, the candidates in six groups of five or six spent one week at Lovelace undergoing comprehensive medical examinations. From there, 31 of the 32 (one candidate failed a blood test at Lovelace) advanced to the Aero Medical Laboratory (AML) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where weeklong testing of the six groups took place between Feb. 15 and March 28. Rather than simply examining them physically, testing at AML consisted of stressing the candidates in centrifuges, altitude chambers, and other devices to evaluate their reactions. The selection committee met at Langley in late March and based on all the available data selected seven candidates for Project Mercury. The 24 unsuccessful candidates received notification by telephone on April 1 with a follow up letter from Assistant STG Manager Charles J. Donlan on April 3, also advising them to apply for any possible future astronaut selections. Four of them did apply to the second selection in 1962, and NASA selected two of them. The seven chosen as Mercury astronauts received telephone calls from Donlan on April 2.
Group photo of the Mercury 7 astronauts at their first public appearance in April 1959: Walter M. Schirra, left, Alan B. Shepard, Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, John H. Glenn, M. Scott Carpenter, and L. Gordon Cooper.
On April 9, 1959, NASA formally introduced the men to the nation and the world. The event took place in the ballroom of the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., the new space agency’s first headquarters. The astronauts took their seats at a long table on a makeshift stage, and NASA Administrator T. Keith Glennan introduced them in alphabetical order: “Malcolm S. Carpenter, Leroy G. Cooper, John H. Glenn, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter M. Schirra, Alan B. Shepard, and Donald K. Slayton … the nation’s Mercury astronauts!” After a brief photo session, for the next 90 minutes the new astronauts responded to numerous questions from the reporters gathered in the ballroom. For most of the men, meeting the press represented a new experience as they had little prior exposure to the media in their previous jobs as test pilots. By the time the event concluded, they clearly sensed that their lives had changed forever, with public attention as much a part of their jobs as training for and flying in space. They reported for work at Langley on April 27.
Mercury 7 astronauts M. Scott Carpenter, left, L. Gordon Cooper, John H. Glenn, and Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom.
Carpenter flew America’s second orbital flight, Mercury 7, in May 1962, after serving as backup to Glenn for his historic first orbital flight. He named his capsule Aurora 7. Due to late firing of his retrorockets for the deorbit burn, Carpenter landed 250 miles from the target, and he waited hours for rescue forces to recover him. Cooper served as Schirra’s backup before getting his flight assignment on Mercury 9. He spent 34 hours aboard his Faith 7 capsule, at the time the longest American spaceflight. He served as command pilot of the eight-day Gemini V mission in August 1965, setting another American record. As his last assignment, he served as backup commander for Apollo 10 in 1969. Glenn made history in February 1962 as the first American to orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7. Although he retired from NASA in 1964 to pursue a career in politics, he flew again as a U.S. Senator in 1998 aboard STS-95 at age 77, still the record as the oldest person to orbit the Earth. Grissom flew the second suborbital mission, Mercury 4, aboard his Liberty Bell 7 capsule, in August 1961. Following splashdown, his spacecraft’s hatch accidentally blew off and seawater rapidly filled it, a recovery helicopter pulling him to safety at the last moment. As the first American to travel to space a second time, he commanded the first two-man spacecraft, Gemini 3, in March 1965. He received a third spaceflight assignment as the commander of Apollo 1, the first flight of the three-person spacecraft. He died tragically during a ground test fire of the spacecraft on Jan. 27, 1967.
Mercury 7 astronauts Walter M. Schirra, left, Alan B. Shepard, and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.
Schirra served as Carpenter’s backup before flying six orbits aboard his Sigma 7 spacecraft during the Mercury 8 mission in October 1962. He served as Grissom’s backup for Gemini 3 and flew as the command pilot for Gemini VI in December 1965, the first space rendezvous mission. Two months earlier, he showed his cool when on the first attempt to launch Gemini VI, the rocket’s engines shutdown just before liftoff. Before the Apollo 1 fire, he served as the commander of the Apollo 2 mission, then once again as Grissom’s backup for Apollo 1. After the fire, he flew as the commander of Apollo 7, the first crewed test of Command and Service Module in October 1968, the only astronaut to fly aboard all three of America’s first spacecraft. Shepard holds the honor as the first American in space for his suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7 during the Mercury 4 mission in May 1961. Grounded by an inner ear malady, Shepard went on to lead the astronauts as their chief until reinstated to flight duty in May 1969. He served as the commander of Apollo 14 in January-February 1971, the only Mercury 7 astronaut to walk on the Moon. Originally assigned to fly the Mercury 7 mission, in March 1962, flight surgeons grounded Slayton due to a heart irregularity just two months before his scheduled mission aboard Delta 7. While grounded, he served as chief of flight crew operations. Flight surgeons reinstated him to flying status in March 1972, and soon after NASA assigned him as the docking module pilot for the July 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project joint mission with the Soviet Union.
Summary of spaceflights by the Mercury 7 astronauts. The highlighted boxes with flight names in italics represent astronauts who died before they could undertake the mission. Italics represent astronaut assigned to but did not fly the mission.
Astronaut biographies can be found at https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts
Read the JSC History Office oral histories with Carpenter, Cooper, Glenn, Schirra, and Shepard.
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Share Details Last Updated Apr 02, 2024 EditorLillian GipsonContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related TermsA Home for Astronauts around the Moon
The Gateway space station’s HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module, one of two of Gateway’s habitation elements where astronauts will live, conduct science, and prepare for lunar surface missions, is one step closer to launch following welding completion in Turin, Italy.
HALO, shown in this image from Oct. 23, 2023, will next undergo a series of stress tests to ensure its safety. Upon successful completion, the future home for astronauts will travel to Gilbert, Arizona where Northrop Grumman will complete final outfitting ahead of launch to lunar orbit.
Gateway will be humanity’s first space station in lunar orbit as an essential element of the Artemis missions to return humans to the Moon for scientific discovery and chart a path for the first human missions to Mars.
Image Credit: Northrop Grumman/Thales Alenia Space
Veronica T. Pinnick Put NASA’s PACE Mission through Its Paces
To achieve the impossible, Veronica T. Pinnick, who put NASA’s PACE mission through its prelaunch paces, says you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Name: Dr. Veronica T. Pinnick
Title: Plankton Aerosol, Cloud and ocean Ecosystem (PACE) Integration and Test (I&T) manager
Formal Job Classification: Chemist
Organization: Integration and Test Branch, Electrical Engineering Division (Code 568)
Veronica Pinnick is an integration and test manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.Credit: NASA/Dennis HenryWhat do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard?
As the PACE I&T manager, I managed the build-up of the entire observatory. Integration means we put the spacecraft together. Testing means we make sure it works within itself and that it will also work in space.
Why did you become a chemist? What is your educational background?
In third grade, we did a science experiment that involved pulling out the colors of a black maker, which turned out to be a mixture of many colors. It was the first time my little science brain exploded! I learned that maybe not everything was as it first appeared, it was so cool. Years later, I now do that same experiment (chromatography) on Mars, looking at dirt and pulling it apart to see what it is made of.
I have a B.A. in chemistry from Minot State University in North Dakota. I have a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Texas A&M University. I did a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland.
How did you come to Goddard?
My post-doctoral fellowship involved a Goddard project, designing an instrument to look for life on Mars. I thought that was an interesting application of my specialty! After my fellowship, I joined Goddard in 2010 working on that same project for 10 more years.
Towards the end of that project, I became the I&T manager responsible for building, testing, and delivery of that instrument to an ESA (European Space Agency) Mars rover. During those years, I realized that I wanted to change my career path more towards engineering.
Why did you merge science and engineering in your career?
Branching out to try new things can be scary. I think what I enjoy most about working at Goddard is that there are endless opportunities for people who are comfortable being uncomfortable. I really like both science and engineering. I think skills from my scientific background really help in building and testing instruments for other scientists.
When I started in college, I did not really understand the difference between science and engineering. When I arrived at Goddard, I learned the important difference between these two different roles. The scientist asks, “What do I want to measure?” The engineer asks, “How can I build an instrument to measure that?” Blending the two disciplines, you end up with an instrument that measures something in space!
We work at our best when we are cross-disciplinary, when scientists think like engineers and engineers think like scientists, when we can understand where each other is coming from. My passion is to try to return Goddard to my original mindset, that there should be full understanding of the goals of science and engineering by both disciplines.
Courtesy of Veronica PinnickAs a mentor, how do you encourage your people to be cross-disciplinary?
I encourage my mentees to think about their skill sets with an open mind and an open imagination. Sometimes people can get pigeon-holed in their skills and think they can only do one specific job. With the right mentorship and the right vision of what Goddard can do, and what gaps exist, we can fill the gaps with different skill sets.
So many times, junior scientists and engineers tell themselves they cannot do something because they lack the background or education. But in practice, what you really need are creative thinkers, creative problem solvers – your background does not matter. You must believe in your own potential. I try to show my mentees that I believe in them and their potential to branch out from their comfort zone. I tell them to push themselves to evolve. Again, you progress by being uncomfortable.
Goddard has the top minds in science and engineering. Everyone is always learning from their peers. Likewise, our mentees have so much to offer. The most junior people come at problems with a fresh perspective. Diverse perspectives always help bring new ideas to the table.
What is Goddard’s greatest challenge for new scientists and engineers?
When you are at a university, you do not always have a big budget, but you are unlimited in terms of the size or power of an instrument you want to build. When you send an instrument to space, the engineering challenges are to make it small, lightweight, and power efficient.
This is one of the hardest changes coming out of a university and joining Goddard. This is an adjustment that every person new to space has to think about and make.
What has made you proudest in your career?
I am proud of what I have built for space, but I am proudest of the people I have positively impacted along the way. I really think it is important to learn lessons from those who came before me and I am very grateful to them. I also want to help teach those coming up. We prepare lessons learned after each mission. I feel very strongly that it is important to pass these along to the next generation.
In addition to technical information, I focus a lot on people skills. To build a good team culture, you have to listen to and respect all the voices on your team. I hope to pass on the importance of teamwork and also having fun while doing our very important, very difficult work.
How does being comfortable being uncomfortable motivate you?
I have been drawn to a lot of flight missions and technology developments that are really, really challenging. That is what Goddard does best. It is unbelievable to do science on other planets! Each planet has its own unique challenges.
I started by working on ExoMars, the ESA Mars rover. I learned all about Mars and what makes doing science on Mars hard.
Then I worked on the proposal for Dragonfly, which is a flying drone that will explore Saturn’s moon Titan. I had to learn about why Titan is hard.
Now, I’ve finished building and launching a whole satellite for observing Earth, which included performing all the testing needed to make sure it will work on orbit.
Engineering instruments for different locations in the solar system requires a whole new set of engineering solutions. That is really fun, it allows me to be so creative. There are very few tried and true methods for some of these environments.
At Goddard, I am constantly challenged which makes me constantly uncomfortable but that is what I like. At first, it is intimidating. Then it is exciting!
Be comfortable being uncomfortable!
Why is working at Goddard like solving a puzzle?
At Goddard we work with some of the smartest people around. We are open to brainstorming together and coming up with solutions together.
Working on flight missions at Goddard, we work in teams which are inherently cross-disciplinary. When problems happen, it is not always easy to figure out what went wrong or how to fix the problem. Some of my most invigorating professional moments have been when things don’t go according to plan and I feel like a detective trying to figure out what exactly went wrong and how to fix it. That is where I have seen some of Goddard’s absolute best work.
Troubleshooting is like looking at 850 pieces of a 1,000 piece puzzle that you have to put together. You will never get all the pieces, but will have a pretty good idea of the big picture. It initially makes me frustrated, but I love it. It is so satisfying when your team solves the puzzle.
Why are education and outreach so important to you?
Being a good scientist means that a portion of your job is to communicate to the public what you are studying, why it is important, and what you found out. As a civil servant, the public is paying me to do this job, so I feel extremely responsible for bringing NASA’s mission to the public.
I have done education and public outreach with people of all ages. I really enjoy doing Mars rover activities with preschoolers. Three- and 4-year-olds helped me design the next Mars rover. Honestly, their ideas had great potential. I told them Mars was cold, so some of the kids put a blanket on the Rover model, which is almost exactly what we do. They were so excited to find out their solution really works in space!
People respond to knowing they can be a part of what we do. The public is so excited about what we do and want to know more. I feel inspired by their curiosity. Their excitement is infectious. They reinvigorate the joy in what we do and why we are doing what we do. I truly consider being an ambassador for NASA to the public a privilege, not a responsibility.
What do you do for fun?
I really like escape rooms; they involve all sorts of puzzles. I love the challenge of trying to figure something out under pressure. I play acoustic guitar and ukelele. We have a family band, but we only perform at home. I also like to travel and learn new languages. I am a total foodie and very much enjoy new creations made by my husband.
Who would you like to thank for encouraging you?
I absolutely thank my family, especially my husband and my son. Many of the missions we do at Goddard require a lot of personal sacrifice at times. Our missions often require long hours and extreme focus and concentration. We do it because we truly believe in and are inspired by Goddard’s mission. We are driven to build things and send them to space. That requires dedication not just from the people who work at Goddard, but also from their families. Their unending support means the world to me.
What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.
Always learning, giving back, being challenged.
By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
Share Details Last Updated Apr 02, 2024 Related TermsNASA Partnerships Bring 2024 Total Solar Eclipse to Everyone
Eclipses are an important contribution to NASA’s research into the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, and the part of Earth’s atmosphere where space weather happens. They’re also an inspirational opportunity for the public to get involved, learn, and connect with our place in the universe.
Read More: 2024 Total Solar EclipseOn Monday, April 8, NASA and its partners will celebrate the wonders of the total solar eclipse as it passes over North America, with the path of totality in the United States, from Kerrville, Texas, to Houlton, Maine.
Our partners bring their creativity in sharing the excitement of the upcoming eclipse and help encourage everyone to safely enjoy this celestial event.Maureen O'Brien
Strategic alliances and partnerships manager for NASA's Office of Communications
Here are just some ways NASA is working with partners to engage the public in the upcoming total solar eclipse.
- NASA and the Major League Baseball Players Association are collaborating on the development of video and social content to emphasize eclipse awareness and safe viewing. NASA representatives also will throw out the first pitch in several games leading up to the eclipse.
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway is hosting an eclipse viewing event and live broadcast that will feature NASA exhibits, astronauts, INDY drivers, and STEM engagement talks and activities for visitors.
- Peanuts Worldwide is supporting educators with the release of new eclipse learning resources for elementary and middle school students and Snoopy is participating in events in Cleveland.
- Krispy Kreme introduced a new doughnut in honor of the eclipse and will share information about the eclipse and safe viewing.
- NASA is working with Google on new eclipse content on the Arts & Culture and other Google pages.
- Third Rock Radio (TRR) is sharing NASA podcast content and expert interviews, educational and safety messages, and a message from the International Space Station. TRR also will feature a Solar Songs listener request weekend leading up to eclipse day and live NASA TV audio coverage during the eclipse.
- Nasdaq will carry coverage of part of the NASA TV broadcast on its screen in Times Square.
Rob Lasalvia
Partnership manager for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement
- Crayola Education released an eclipse-themed how-to video about the eclipse with a creative exercise for students.
- LEGO Education launched an eclipse education challenge to engage students and the public in learning more about the Sun and the eclipse.
- Microsoft will launch a quiz on eclipse safety with links to NASA resources.
- Discovery Education will get classrooms excited about space with eclipse resources on its PreK–12 learning platform.
- Canva released a series of free interactive eclipse courses and LabXchange released a new eclipse learning pathway for students.
- The Achievery will feature a collection of eclipse videos, share NASA’s live eclipse coverage, and host student events at AT&T locations across the country.
- NASA experts participated in a Game Jam hosted by the National Esports Association in February in which university students were challenged to create a game simulation of the Eclipse. The student-developed games will be featured during an online eclipse gaming event April 8.
- Jack and Jill of America, Inc. will host eclipse watch parties across the country for which NASA will provide viewing eclipse resources and educational materials.
- Girl Scouts of the USA is sharing NASA eclipse information and encouraging its chapters and troops to host watch parties or connect to local NASA events.
- NASA partnered with the National Park Service and Earth to Sky on activities, including the “Interpreting Eclipses” webinar series, to prepare interpreters and informal educators for the total eclipse and Heliophysics Big Year. Through this partnership, national parks hosting eclipse events also will provide elements designed especially for the blind and low vision, neurodivergent children, the physically impaired, and those with hearing impairments.
- NASA is providing eclipse resources and educational materials to local 4-H clubs along the path of totality through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Anita Dey
Partnerships manager for outreach and engagement for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
Learn more about NASA’s strategic partnerships and STEM engagement partnerships online. To learn more about where and how to safely view this year’s total solar eclipse, visit: https://go.nasa.gov/Eclipse2024.
Author: Gina Anderson, NASA Office of Communications
Explore More 5 min read Scientists Use NASA Data to Predict Solar Corona Before EclipseOur Sun, like many stars, is adorned with a crown. It’s called a corona (Latin…
Article 10 hours ago 2 min read Solar Eclipse ResourcesA spectacular eclipse will sweep across North America on April 8, 2024! Enjoy these free…
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Article 1 day ago Share Details Last Updated Apr 02, 2024 EditorKaren Northon Related TermsThat Starry Night Sky? It’s Full of Eclipses
5 min read
That Starry Night Sky? It’s Full of Eclipses An artist’s concept shows the TRAPPIST-1 planets as they might be seen from Earth using an extremely powerful – and fictional – telescope. NASA/JPL-CaltechOur star, the Sun, on occasion joins forces with the Moon to offer us Earthlings a spectacular solar eclipse – like the one that will be visible to parts of the United States, Mexico, and Canada on April 8.
But out there, among the other stars, how often can we see similar eclipses? The answer depends on your point of view. Literally.
On Earth, a total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks the Sun’s disk as seen from part of Earth’s surface. In this case, the “path of totality” will be a strip cutting across the country, from Texas to Maine.
We also can see “eclipses” involving Mercury and Venus, the two planets in our solar system that orbit the Sun more closely than Earth, as they pass between our telescopes and the Sun (though only by using telescopes with protective filters to avoid eye damage). In these rare events, the planets are tiny dots crossing the Sun’s much larger disk.
A composite of images of the Venus transit taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 5, 2012. The image shows a timelapse of Venus’ path across the Sun. NASA/Goddard/SDOAnd astronomers can, in a sense, “see” eclipses among other systems of planets orbiting their parent stars. In this case, the eclipse is a tiny drop in starlight as a planet, from our point of view, crosses the face of its star. That crossing, called a transit, can register on sensitive light sensors attached to telescopes on Earth and those in space, such as NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, or TESS (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). It’s how the bulk of the more than 5,500 confirmed exoplanets – planets around other stars – have been detected so far, although other methods also are used to detect exoplanets.
“A solar eclipse is a huge transit,” said Allison Youngblood, the deputy project scientist for TESS at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
And both types of “transits” – whether they involve solar eclipses or exoplanets – can yield world-changing science. Solar eclipse observations in 1919 helped prove Einstein’s theory of general relativity, when the bending of a star’s light by the Sun’s gravity caused the star’s apparent position to shift – showing that gravity causes space and time to curve around it.
Exoplanet transits also provide far more than just detections of distant planets, Youngblood said.
“The planet passes in front of the star, and blocks a certain amount of the star’s light,” she said. “The dip [in starlight] tells us about the size of the planet. It gives us a measurement of the radius of the planet.”
Careful measurements of multiple transits also can reveal how long a year is on an exoplanet, and provide insights into its formation and history. Careful measurements of multiple transits also can provide insights into exoplanet formation and history.
And the starlight shining through the exoplanet’s atmosphere during its transit, if measured using an instrument called a spectrograph, can reveal deeper characteristics of the planet itself. The light is split into a rainbow-like spectrum, and slices missing from the spectrum can indicate gases in the planet’s atmosphere that absorbed that “color” – or wavelength.
“Measuring the planet at many wavelengths tells us what chemicals and what molecules are in that planet’s atmosphere,” Youngblood said.
Eclipses are such a handy way to capture information about distant worlds that scientists have learned how to create their own. Instead of waiting for eclipses to occur in nature, they can engineer them right inside their telescopes. Instruments called coronagraphs, first used on Earth to study the Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona), are now carried aboard several space telescopes. And when NASA’s next flagship space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launches by May 2027, it will demonstrate new coronagraph technologies that have never been flown in space before. Coronagraphs use a system of masks and filters to block the light from a central star, revealing the far fainter light of planets in orbit around it.
Of course, that isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. Whether searching for transits, or for direct images of exoplanets using a coronagraph, astronomers must contend with the overwhelming light from stars – an immense technological challenge.
“An Earth-like transit in front of stars is equivalent to a mosquito walking in front of a headlight,” said David Ciardi, chief scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech. “That’s how little light is blocked.”
We don’t have this problem when viewing solar eclipses – “our very first coronagraphs,” Ciardi says. By pure happenstance, the Moon covers the Sun completely during an eclipse.
“A solar eclipse is like a human walking in front of a headlight,” he said.
We would have no such luck on other planets in our solar system.
Mars’ oddly shaped moons are too small to fully block the Sun during their transits; and while eclipses might be spectacular among the outer planets – for instance, Jupiter and its many moons – they wouldn’t match the total coverage of a solar eclipse.
We happen to be living at a fortunate time for eclipse viewing. Billions of years ago, the Moon was far closer to Earth, and would have appeared to dwarf the Sun during an eclipse. And in about 700 million years, the Moon will be so much farther away that it will no longer be able to make total solar eclipses.
“A solar eclipse is the pinnacle of being lucky,” Tripathi said. “The Moon’s size and distance allow it to completely block out the Sun’s light. We’re at this perfect time and place in the universe to be able to witness such a perfect phenomenon.”
A Long Year for a Cold Saturn
Share Details Last Updated Apr 02, 2024 Related Terms Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA
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Scientists Use NASA Data to Predict Solar Corona Before Eclipse
4 min read
Scientists Use NASA Data to Predict Solar Corona Before EclipseOur Sun, like many stars, is adorned with a crown. It’s called a corona (Latin for “crown” or “wreath”) and consists of long, thread-like strands of plasma billowing out from the Sun’s surface. The powerful magnetic field of the Sun defines these strands, causing them to ripple and evolve their structures constantly. The strands are faint, however, so the only way to observe the corona with the naked eye is during a total solar eclipse.
In anticipation of the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, scientists at Predictive Science are using data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to predict what our Sun’s crown may look like on that day. What’s more, their model uses the computational efforts of NASA’s Pleiades Supercomputer to update its predictions in near real-time. This means that the model continuously updates its predictions as it ingests data beamed down from SDO, providing information as close to real-time as possible.
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The solar corona is our star’s outer atmosphere. It “extends out into interplanetary space as the solar wind,” said Predictive Science president Jon Linker. Driven by heat and magnetic turbulence in the Sun, this wind blows out to the edges of the solar system. “It envelopes the planets,” Linker said, “including Earth.”
As Earth and other planets bathe in coronal outflow, their atmospheres react to the energetic particles and magnetic fields found within the solar wind. This reaction, called space weather, can range from mild to severe, just like terrestrial weather. Extreme space weather events, such as large solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections, can disrupt important communications technology, affect astronauts in orbit, or even harm the electric grids we all rely on.
Modern society depends on a variety of technologies that are susceptible to the extremes of space weather. This graphic shows some of the technology and infrastructure affected by space weather events. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterSpace weather is one of the most tangible effects of the Sun’s dynamic exterior, and creating accurate forecasts is something scientists are striving toward. According to Linker, refining these solar models helps build the foundation for forecasting. “If you’re going to predict the path of a coronal mass ejection, just like for a hurricane, to have this more accurate background is really important,” he said.
SDO and other solar observatories provide detailed insights about the corona, but scientists are still missing some vital information about the forces that drive its activity, which is needed to predict the corona’s appearance with precision. “We don’t have a way of measuring the magnetic field accurately in the corona,” said Emily Mason, a research scientist at Predictive Science. “That’s one of the things that makes this so challenging.”
To build their model, researchers at Predictive Science use measurements of the Sun’s changing magnetic field at the solar surface to drive their model in near real-time. A key to this innovation was creating an automated process that converts raw data from SDO to show how magnetic flux and energy are injected into the corona over time. Adding this dynamic into the model allows the corona to evolve over time, leading to solar eruptions. “We developed a software pipeline that took in the magnetic field maps, picked out all of the areas that should be energized, and then fine-tuned the amount of energy to add to those areas,” Mason said. Building this automatic pipeline was a huge step forward for the team. In past predictions, the model used a static snapshot of the surface magnetic field – not ideal for keeping up with the ever-changing Sun, especially during our current heightened period of solar activity. Similarly, in iterations from 2017 and 2021, Mason explained that a teammate used to “literally hand-draw which areas on the Sun needed to be energized” by analyzing extreme ultraviolet activity in certain regions. Continuously updating the magnetic field is central to all of the changes with this year’s model, and the team has high hopes for the results.
Image Before/AfterThe recurrence of total solar eclipses provides opportunities to test the accuracy of their models against real-life conditions and update them accordingly. “We’ve used the eclipse predictions every time to do something new with the model,” said Cooper Downs, a research scientist at Predictive Science who orchestrated the automated modeling pipeline. “I’m really excited to see over the next two weeks how this prediction keeps improving. I think it will be a really drastic difference from what we used to be able to do.”
Mason shares his enthusiasm. “The eclipse is just such a fantastic chance to go, ‘Look at this! This is what we think it’s gonna look like! Don’t you want to learn more about this?” she said with a grin. “It’s a really exciting opportunity for us to share the things that excite us all year round with everybody else.”
By Rachel Lense
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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NASA Sets Coverage for Astronaut Loral O’Hara, Crewmates Return
Three crew members are scheduled to begin their return to Earth on Friday, April 5, from the International Space Station. NASA will provide live coverage of their departure from the orbital complex and landing.
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus will depart from the station’s Rassvet module in the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at 11:55 p.m. EDT April 5, and will head for a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, at 3:18 a.m. Saturday, April 6 (12:18 p.m. Kazakhstan time).
Coverage will begin at 8 p.m. on April 5 with farewells and the Soyuz hatch closure on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms including social media.
O’Hara is completing a mission spanning 204 days in space that covered 3,264 orbits of the Earth and 86.5 million miles. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya launched with NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson to the station aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft on March 23. Dyson will remain aboard the station for a six-month research mission.
After landing, the three crew members will fly on a helicopter from the landing site to the recovery staging city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. O’Hara then will depart back to Houston.
Friday, April 5
8 p.m.: NASA coverage of farewells and hatch closure of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft begins
11:30 p.m.: NASA coverage for undocking continues
11:55 p.m.: Undocking
Saturday, April 6
2 a.m.: NASA coverage of deorbit burn and landing begins.
2:24 a.m.: Deorbit burn
3:18 a.m.: Landing
NASA’s coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
-end-
Julian Coltre / Josh Finch
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
julian.n.coltre@nasa.gov / joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
NASA Awards Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2024
5 min read
NASA Awards Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2024 The class of 2024 NHFP Fellows are shown in this photo montage (top to bottom, left to right): The Hubble Fellows (seen in the red hexagons) are: Michael Calzadilla, Sanskriti Das, Yue Hu, Wynn Jacobson-Galan, Madeleine McKenzie, Jed McKinney, Andrew Saydjari, Peter Senchyna, Raphael Skalidis, and Adam Smercina. The Einstein Fellows (seen in the blue hexagons) are: Vishal Baibhav, Jordy Davelaar, Alexander Dittmann, Cristhian Garcia Quintero, Amelia (Lia) Hankla, and Keefe Mitman. The Sagan Fellows (seen in green hexagons) are: Jaren Ashcraft, Kiersten Boley, Cheng Han Hsieh, Rafael Luque, Sarah Moran, Shangjia Zhang, Lily Zhao, and Sebastian Zieba. NASA, Catherine Cranmer (CXC)The highly competitive NASA Hubble Fellowship Program (NHFP) recently named 24 new fellows to its 2024 roster. The program fosters excellence and inclusive leadership in astrophysics by supporting a diverse group of exceptionally promising and innovative early-career astrophysicists.
The NHFP enables outstanding postdoctoral scientists to pursue independent research in any area of NASA Astrophysics, using theory, observations, simulations, experimentation, or instrument development. Over 520 applicants vied for the 2024 fellowships. Each fellowship provides the awardee up to three years of support at a U.S. institution.
Once selected, fellows are named to one of three sub-categories corresponding to three broad scientific questions that NASA seeks to answer about the universe:
- How does the universe work? – Einstein Fellows
- How did we get here? – Hubble Fellows
- Are we alone? – Sagan Fellows
“The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program is a highly competitive program, and this year’s cadre of Fellows are to be congratulated on their selection,” said Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “They will undoubtably be future leaders in the field of Astronomy and Astrophysics.”
The list below provides the names of the 2024 awardees, their fellowship host institutions, and their proposed research topics.
2024 NASA Hubble Fellowship Program:How does the universe work? – Einstein Fellows:
- Vishal Baibhav, Columbia University, Dancing with Black Holes: Harnessing gravitational waves to understand the formation of black holes
- Jordy Davelaar, Princeton University, Unraveling the physics of accreting black hole binaries
- Alexander Dittmann, Institute for Advanced Study, Bridging the Gap in Supermassive Black Hole Binary Accretion – From Simulation to Observation
- Cristhian Garcia Quintero, Harvard University, Phenomenological modified gravity in the non-linear regime and improving BAO measurements with Stage-IV surveys
- Amelia (Lia) Hankla, University of Maryland, College Park, Explaining Radio to X-ray Observations of Luminous Black Holes with a Multizone Outflowing Corona Model
- Keefe Mitman, Cornell University, Decoding General Relativity with Next-Generation Numerical Relativity Waveforms
How did we get here? – Hubble Fellows:
- Michael Calzadilla, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, A Multiwavelength View of the Evolving Baryon Cycle in Galaxy Clusters
- Sanskriti Das, Stanford University, Where the energetic universe meets the hot universe
- Yue Hu, Institute for Advanced Study, The Role of Magnetic Field in Galaxy Cluster’s Diffuse Structure Formation
- Wynn Jacobson-Galan, California Institute of Technology, Final Moments: Uncovering the Rate of Enhanced Red Supergiant Mass-loss in the Local Volume
- Madeleine McKenzie, Carnegie Observatories, Uncovering the unknown origins of globular clusters
- Jed McKinney, University of Texas, Austin, The Role of Dust in Shaping the Evolution of Galaxies
- Andrew Saydjari, Princeton University, Inferring Kinematic and Chemical Maps of Galactic Dust
- Peter Senchyna, Carnegie Observatories, Bridging the Gap: Bringing the First Galaxies into Focus with Local Laboratories
- Raphael Skalidis, California Institute of Technology, Magnetic fields in the multiphase interstellar medium
- Adam Smercina, Space Telescope Science Institute, A Portrait of the Triangulum: Advancing a New Frontier of Galaxy Evolution with Resolved Stars
Are we alone? – Sagan Fellows:
- Jaren Ashcraft, University of California, Santa Barbara, Optimizing the Vector Field for Next-generation Astrophysics
- Kiersten Boley, Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory, Identifying the Key Materials for Planet Formation and Evolution
- Cheng Han Hsieh, University of Texas, Austin, A Deep Dive into the Early Evolution of Protoplanetary Disk Substructures and the Onset of Planet and Star Formation
- Rafael Luque, University of Chicago, Understanding the origin and nature of sub-Neptunes
- Sarah Moran, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, From Stars to Storms: Planetary Cloud Seeding with Sulfur-based Hazes
- Shangjia Zhang, Columbia University, Probing Young Planet Populations with 3D Self-Consistent Disk Thermodynamics
- Lily Zhao, University of Chicago, Enabling Radial Velocity Detection of Earth-Twins Through Data-Driven Algorithms and Community Collaboration
- Sebastian Zieba, Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory, Characterization of rocky exoplanet surfaces and atmospheres in the JWST era
An important part of the NHFP is the annual Symposium, which allows Fellows the opportunity to present results of their research, and to meet each other and the scientific and administrative staff who manage the program. The 2023 Symposium was held at the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Science topics ranged through exoplanets, gravitational waves, fast radio bursts, cosmology and more. Non-science sessions included discussions about career paths, fellows’ plans for mentoring and to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in the NHFP, as well as an open mic highlighting an array of talents outside of astrophysics.
The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland administers the NHFP on behalf of NASA, in collaboration with the Chandra X-ray Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California.
Short bios and photos of the 2024 NHFP Fellows can be found at:
https://www.stsci.edu/stsci-research/fellowships/nasa-hubble-fellowship-program/2024-nhfp-fellows
Media Contacts:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Cheryl Gundy
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
NASA Fellowships
NASA Fellowship Activity Each year, the NASA Fellowship Activity awards training grants to Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) using Minority University Research…
History Office Fellowships
In conjunction with three major professional societies, the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), History of Science Society (HSS)…
2024 Total Eclipse
NASA Engineer Chris Lupo Receives 2024 Federal Engineer Award
The National Society of Professional Engineers named Chris Lupo, deputy chief engineer of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, as the agency’s 2024 Federal Engineer of the Year. Sponsored by the National Society of Professional Engineers in Government, the award recognizes engineers employed in the federal government.
Lupo was recognized during an award ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington on Feb. 23, alongside recipients from the National Park Service, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Air Force, and others.
“It was an incredibly nice surprise to be selected for this award,” said Lupo. “I feel like I’m representing the team in accepting this award, which I believe is an acknowledgment that our NASA team has been successful kickstarting the commercial space industry for human spaceflight.”
Working alongside NASA’s commercial partners, Boeing and SpaceX, Lupo contributed to the design and development of both companies’ human-rated spaceflight systems, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Leading a team of over 100 engineers comprising nearly 20 engineering disciplines, Lupo spent the past decade working to ensure the spacecraft are safe, reliable, and a cost-effective means of transportation for astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
“I am very proud of the program’s engineering team and in particular Lupo’s leadership as deputy chief engineer. The team thoroughly reviews the analysis, testing, and previous flights data for every single mission that our commercial partners are executing to fly safely,” said Steve Stich, who manages the program.
Lupo joined the program spacecraft chief engineer, contributing to the effort to return human spaceflight capability to the United States following a retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. Beginning with the launch of SpaceX Demo-2 in 2020 – the first crewed spaceflight from American soil since the space shuttle – the program has launched nine crewed missions to the orbiting laboratory, most recently NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission, which launched from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 4, 2024.
Lupo’s work with the Starliner spacecraft hits an important milestone this year with its first crewed flight test to the space station, after two previous uncrewed test flights.
“Returning the capability to launch astronauts from the U.S. again, that’s probably what I’m most proud of,” said Lupo. “I think all of us in the program are very proud of that. We’re doing a service for the nation, and I think it’s very important to get this industry established so that NASA can focus on human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit.”
Solar Eclipse Resources
Kent Blackwell, Back Bay Amateur Astronomers
From the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Get ready for the Moon to pass in front of the Sun, casting its shadow across all of North America. A spectacular total eclipse will sweep across North America on April 8, 2024!
The Night Sky Network and Astronomical Society of the Pacific are creating and curating information for amateur astronomers and other informal educators. See some of our Night Sky Network and community eclipse resources here:
- Most of the US will be graced with a partial eclipse. This is a great reason to get your community together. Plan your event with this simple Partial Eclipse Party Planner.
- Preparing for an Eclipse Public Presentation from our partners at NISE about viewing the eclipses, including what to expect if you are not on the central paths – edit to make it your own!
- The 2024 NASA Eclipse Resources include a Safe Solar Viewing Guide, Posters, and more!
- Andrew Fraknoi and a group of astronomy educators have created a collection of eclipse resources in preparation for the upcoming solar eclipses, including 32 educational activities.
- Find lists of safe solar viewers and filters from our partners at the American Astronomical Society.
- Enjoy this activity Eclipses Around the World to respectfully share ways of knowing eclipses from many cultures
- This video invites everyone to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hear about the eclipse in Spanish, Urdu, Mandarin, Arabic, and more at bit.ly/EclipseAmbassadorsYouTube
Clouded out? That’s okay – tune in to NASA’s official broadcast for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse.
See the activities and resources below for more great eclipse ideas!
- Yardstick Eclipse Activity to model eclipses
- Handouts for the eclipse – eye safety and observing from AAS
- View a Solar Eclipse – DIY Pinhole Projector – Exploratorium
- Resources for Teachers, Administrators, and Families
- NASA’s official Eclipse site – science, safety, and events
- Safety Tips for Solar Eclipse Viewing from the AAS
- Projection Techniques for Safely Observing the Sun – AAS
- More Safety and Viewing Tips from EarthSky
- Collection of Educational Eclipse Resources
- Celebrate our Marvelous Moon
Interview with Alex Borlaff
OK, we generally start with your early years, your childhood, where you’re from, and a little bit about your family at the time. Where you grew up, I think it was in Spain? Do you have siblings, what did your parents do, that sort of thing. And how early was it in your life that you developed an interest in astrophysics or the career that you’re pursuing? What got you interested in that?
Well, I was born in Spain. I grew up and lived in Spain until three years ago when I moved here. I studied in a small town in Madrid, very close to Madrid. I grew up in a family with my mom, who was a nurse at an elderly care center, and my father, who was a firefighter. They are both now retired, but before my father was a firefighter. he was a mechanic. In my family there was a very good interest in both medical science and technology to try to understand why things happen. I remember that my father used to, before going to work, set up the TV for me to watch “Beakman’s World”. I think it was a 1980’s or 90’s show about scientists who would explain things to kids. I remember that very vividly. And very early, I started to gain an interest in how things worked and why nature looks like it looks, but I never really had a precise idea of what I wanted to do until very late, say university. When I applied to university, I was hesitating between doing engineering or astrophysics or physics in general, I had no idea. I always wanted to become a pilot, too. I started to think “I want to be an astronaut!” But at some point I said, “OK, this may be very difficult and what happens if you fail? What happens if you never become an astronaut, for example? You must find something that you really like and is worth doing even if you don’t make it.” So I chose physics because it’s a nice way to understand the whole universe, beyond just engineering. But I never lost track of engineering really. I’ve always been in a mixed world.
Do you have siblings?
Yes, yes. My older brother, Saul, is a firefighter too. He chose to follow my father’s trade. He’s very similar to me. I mean, when we are together, we are always trying to repair something, or building an antenna, or going on a hike or something like that. We are very similar.
The last person we talked to, who was also born in Spain and went to school there, told us that in Spain the education is not like here in America, where you can almost go all through college and not actually know what you want to do. But in Spain you must declare earlier, like at the high school level, and pursue engineering or pursue music or science or something, and you get locked in at that point.
Yeah. In Spain we start choosing fields as early as 14 – 16 years old.
I’ve looked at your list of publications and you have an extensive resume of work, so I’m surprised that you only got interested in this recently.
I’ve been very lucky. I have had very bright and supportive supervisors and colleagues all this time who taught and guided me.
Where did you go for your undergraduate and your graduate work?
I did my undergraduate degree and my masters in Madrid. I was still living with my parents there. In Spain we leave the nest pretty late (laughs). I started there in physics in the Complutense University of Madrid, which is the largest public university in Spain, and it was really hard. I had a hard time in the first two years because, to be honest, I’ve never been very good at math.
That would be a problem.
We are doing this in a NASA interview, but I have to say that I had to ask for help from my friends to keep up. In more practical fields, like the subjects that were related to the laboratory or the telescope, I think I was really good. But in the more theoretical subjects I always had trouble. But that was in the first year of university. When we started switching to more astrophysics and more practical things, it went more smoothly.
So, because you were in astrophysics, that was why you decided to continue and pursue a PhD, which is somewhat of a basic requirement in that kind of a field?
Yeah, many of my friends were well focused: you do a degree, then a master’s and a PhD, then you do a post doc, maybe another post doc, and then you are a professor, or something. I never had that path decided. I mean I followed in some way that career, but I think I’ve never been so focused as when I did my master’s and one of my friends said “Hey, are you thinking of doing a PhD in this place? And I was like “OK, maybe that would be interesting, to follow the continual theme.” But I wasn’t sure that I wanted to become a professor. I just thought it would be interesting to do a PhD and then start work at ESA or NASA.
And the place where you got your PhD, the university, was in the Canary Islands, I believe?
Yes, It’s an amazing place, very beautiful.
I don’t know how you could study there. That’s a place people go for vacation!
Oh, yeah! Well, that is true.
A very exotic place, I would think. OK. And then what? Did you get your post doc at Ames because you saw the opportunity posted and applied for it? Or did you know somebody? Was there a connection of some kind that got you to Ames?
Not really, no. But it was a very critical moment in my life because I had just finished the PhD and it was very intense at the end, so I decided to take some months off, and I started working on a personal project which was building a house. It was in Spain, my grandma’s house. It had been abandoned for many years, so my now wife and I decided to repair it and at the same time I was applying to jobs, trying to find a position. It took six or seven months, and I wasn’t really sure exactly where to go. And then I remembered: “OK, first do the harder thing”, so I applied to NASA, ESA, and CNES. I tried to apply to the hardest things that I would probably not get. I just started sending emails to NASA, and one of the people who answered was Pamela Marcum, my supervisor here. She was very nice and we started working on a project together, to submit. And I think it was February 2019, when we submitted. Then I forgot about it and said “OK, they are never going to answer.” And it was probably in June 2019 that she sent me an email, and said: “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but they are going to offer you a position at NASA”. And I was like, “Wow”!
Wow, indeed!
It was a very scary moment because I had no, absolutely no, experience on how the immigration process for USA and NASA worked, in terms of “When should I be there?” “Can I bring my wife?” “Can she move with me, or do I have to move alone?” But after a couple of days of very scary questions, we were very happy to know we were moving to the United States!
So up until then, you hadn’t really had a reason to master English as a second language?
Well, my PhD and all my publications were in English, so it was necessary for me to learn it, although it is hard to master it from a non-English speaking country.
I saw in one of your bio’s, probably in your resume, where it described your language skills and showed English 100%, Spanish 100%, and even some Russian and some French. I’m always interested in people who are going to somewhere where they don’t speak the language. Or maybe you did at the time, I don’t know, or had but a modicum of English training, especially to an educational setting where it’s important to be able to communicate and understand.
I think that was the moment when I really started to feel more or less comfortable with English. But I must also say that my supervisor was British.
OK, that would help.
He had been living in Spain for 30 years, John Beckman, and he didn’t want to speak in English with Spanish people because to be honest, he speaks Spanish way better than we speak English. He was a lot of help in many ways but not so much for the English. However, moving to the United States teaches you not just the language but the way to express things, the way to make people comfortable with what you say. I think that in this we are way more direct, in some sense, but in another sense, I feel like the Americans don’t want to ‘put flowers’ in questions”, they just want to answer the question, which is something that I really like. So, I was very comfortable very early, although there are many layers of language to be learned.
Wonderful! That’s a great story and pretty direct as far as getting to Ames. Some of the people we interview, their road to Ames is all over the place and just sort of happened, while yours was straight on, right out of your PhD practically, so that’s great.
To be honest, I spent a few months in the European Space Agency as a visitor, but that happened after I applied to NASA, so it was just hanging there.
Good for you! So, you got your PhD, you’ve done your post doc, or at least have been doing it. So now is perhaps a good time to talk about your work, your science, and why it’s important. Because all of NASA’s research and programs are funded by the taxpayers, they have to add value. Can you talk about your work and justify it as to why it should be important to the people who are paying for it?
When I started my PhD, we were studying galaxies, basically galaxy evolution. The main idea is that galaxies are the building blocks of the universe. You have planets which are rotating around stars, and stars form groups which are galaxies, but galaxies are the basic unit that builds the universe. You look for something that could make a universe, and it’s a galaxy. It contains all the ingredients to make the universe. And when we look at the picture of a galaxy in space, we always see a bright core and then a disk, maybe with some spiral arms and that’s the end, darkness. It’s just emptiness between galaxies. And this is not really true. Now, we know that galaxies are just like icebergs, in the sense that we only see the tip of them. And when we use more powerful telescopes, they start to grow and grow and grow and become bigger and bigger and bigger, without frontiers. So, space is filled with stars, on and on. That’s it.
The bigger the telescopes, the more you find, that’s absolutely true. And I’m glad you brought up the galaxies because one of the things we will ask you toward the end of this interview is if you have some pictures that represent the things you’ve talked about in your life, your work, or your family, we would like to include those. They’re always very interesting. And I found that picture of the Whirlpool Galaxy.
Oh, yes!
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky. (nasa.gov/image)
It was labeled picture of the day from some organization, and it was absolutely beautiful. I hope that we can include that picture as part of your post when we get it ready to go.
I think that picture is very beautiful, I would say it has huge emotional value to me because when I landed here at Ames, one of the dream things I wanted to do when I just arrived was to work with the Stratospheric Observatory for Far Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), although I had no relevant experience. We don’t have that kind of facility in Spain. And then I saw a picture of another galaxy called NGC 1068, which is really beautiful.
Magnetic fields in NGC 1068, or M77, are shown as streamlines over a visible light and X-ray composite image of the galaxy. (https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/shaping-spiral-galaxy/)
It was observed by SOFIA. And I sent an e-mail to one of the PI’s of the article, and said: “This is really beautiful. Can I work with you?” (laughs) And just like that he said. “Yeah. I’m in the SOFIA building, just come over and we’ll have a chat”. And two years later I was flying with him in SOFIA!
SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a 2.7-meter (106-inch) reflecting telescope (with an effective diameter of 2.5 meters or 100 inches). Flying into the stratosphere at 38,000-45,000 feet puts SOFIA above 99 percent of Earth’s infrared-blocking atmosphere, allowing astronomers to study the solar system and beyond in ways that are not possible with ground-based telescopes. SOFIA was made possible through a partnership between NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR.
(Image courtesy nasa.gov)
It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. And I know that it would have been impossible if I had never got that position at Ames. So, it’s something that I just can’t explain with words.
That’s a great story and it’s a great picture, one that immediately someone would look at and say “that is beautiful”. And besides being beautiful, what is it? As with science everything we see or discover prompts more questions. So, it’s very interesting. And regarding astronaut training: would you like to talk a little bit about your experience as an astronaut candidate, how that came about, and what it was like?
Sure. I always wanted to be an astronaut and I’m still into it. I remember when I had just started my degree there was the latest call from the European Space Agency for astronauts in 2008. I took notes of everything: how they looked, what expertise they had, and basically with that very limited amount of information you make your way to the next call. So last year they opened this call to the next class of European astronauts in 2022, and I applied. Another friend of mine applied too, and we were like, “OK, we will get ditched in the first cut, so don’t worry about it”. But I got an invitation to the next round. The first round was just sending in the CV and answering a couple questions, very, very general information. But the second round was very interesting: you get a trip to Germany. And there is the psychometrical testing.
Well, you’re a serious candidate when you get to that point.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, when we applied there were 22,000 people in the pool, and in the next round there were like 2,000. I don’t remember exactly the number, 1,000 or 2,000. So we were doing all these psychological tests and screens. We were in a very impressive room, full of other candidates and they looked very, very serious and were answering the questions at the same time, while maybe you were hesitating with some of them. It was very impressive. But something that really got to me is that other candidates were very, very nice. They were all kind. There was no competition at all. People were trying to help each other and keeping calm. They would say “Don’t worry about this. You’ll probably get the next test right”. So then I went home and I said, OK, this time I am absolutely out because I met some people who are absolutely amazing, far better than me. I mean, there were pilots, military, people working in deep cave mines, industry, even Antarctica, who were very, very smart. But I got an invitation to the next step, and these were more personal with rounds of psychological interviews, many, many hours with the psychologists. At this point we were 400 candidates left. I got interviewed by Thomas Pesquet, one of the European astronauts, who asked questions about how you would behave in personal situations, like risk situations, when your life may be threatened and at some point, you start thinking, “I’m just an astronomer. I don’t have many experiences like that.” I mean when I was in Canary Islands, for example, I learned how to dive so I got a few experiences of “your friend is running out of air underwater”, things like that and apparently that got me and other 100 candidates through to the next round, which was very interesting: it was a medical test. Basically, you spend a week in Germany and everything that you can imagine can be tested, will be tested. Everything!
Wow!
But it’s very, very nice because we were not alone, we were eight people from all over the place, living together for a week. We had a Finnish candidate, a German, a British, one of the selected astronauts was with me in that round, and we were getting along all together, it was kind of like “back to school” and we were on a trip. But at that point the selection is completely out of your control because there’s nothing that you can do to fix anything. For example, you may have something in your heart that is perfectly fine to live on Earth, but it’s not OK to fly to high altitudes, and there’s nothing you can do to fix that. At some point you relax, and say, “OK, I’ve done everything I can to be here, to be fit, to be ready”. So, you just had to relax. I was lucky, very lucky, to pass the medical test. I mean, at that point the ones who passed the medical test were like 50 people from the initial 22,000.
That’s amazing!
Yes, it is! And then there was yet another round of interviews (Phase 5) with the head of the astronaut team, and finally the last 25 of us did another interview with the ESA Director General, in Paris (Phase 6), when the last decision was made, so I went through all the process really until the last point.
Sounds like you did, and you could get down to #2, and if they’re only choosing one then you did absolutely everything right, better than everybody else except #1, and at that point it’s somewhat subjective because all of you in the 50 were extremely well qualified.
Absolutely.
And it might have just been the luck of the draw.
I had the opportunity to be there with the best. I think it’s something that makes you feel better because, I have met many of the selected astronauts and they’re all amazing. And when you met someone like that and become friends, you could say “OK, if they had selected me, they would not have selected him or her, and we were just the same.” So that’s how I think of it. I’ll just keep training for the next astronaut selection.
You probably made a lot of friends. Talk about networking! My goodness, you’ve got a network of people from around the world that you’ve gotten to learn and to know and be close to and are probably lifelong friends with some of them. So that is great. Well, I admire your ambition to do this and the effort and determination that you showed to go all the way to the end of the sequence, and it takes away nothing from you that they wind up selecting someone else. So, are you going to age out of this or are you going to take another shot at it?
Well, it takes some time to rebuild everything but at some point, you realize, “Hey, I am 32 years old. I’m working at NASA, I made it to the last round of an astronaut selection, so I’m physically fit, I passed the psychological test, so I think I have more reasons than ever to apply again. So if another opportunity appears, sure I will apply.
Well, you’re already an impressive success in your pursuits, in your career and in your work, so congratulations on that. You mentioned your wife. Would you like to say anything about your family? I don’t know if you have children, or you have pets or . . .?
No, we don’t have kids yet! We live here in Mountain View and well, I think this story is also her story because when we moved together to the United States, she was finishing her master’s degree in psychology, and after that we would both be unemployed. So, when we moved here together, we were like, “OK, this is a huge opportunity, but we’re going to be starting from zero.” Find a job, find out how to get our transcripts from the university to the United States and everything.” She also had a really hard time to figure out the way through the American system of education. But she made it and she’s now working at Stanford Pediatrics. She’s studying brain development of preterm babies as a research coordinator.
Stanford Pediatrics, wow! That’s impressive. I would think there would be quite a competition for those jobs.
Yeah, it was a very long interview process for her.
Well, good for her.
She’s got some very good skills. She worked as a therapist with kids with autism, and she is an experienced researcher in psychology. So, at some point this group at Stanford was looking for someone who was able to work with kids and with magnetic resonance, to understand how the brain works and how it develops over time. So, she was the perfect fit. She is very happy and loves her work.
During this pandemic, you came to Ames in 2019, and you live in Mountain View, so the closing of the Center probably didn’t affect your commute? Are you able to do your job pretty much remotely? You don’t have a lab or anything that you have to come in for?
Well, most of my job, I can do remotely. I think that the impact was from a more personal point of view because when Covid hit we had been in the USA for only five months. We barely knew anyone. So, it was a more personal impact in the sense that we had just moved here and part of constructing a routine is to go to work, meet some people, friends, maybe establish a network and meet some coworkers to have coffee with. But with the pandemic everything became surreal because we were just working through our computers and at some point, it’s hard to believe that you’re working where you are working and that there are many, many people on the other side of the screen. It takes some real effort to keep your mind healthy in that environment because it’s very easy – not just for us here at NASA but for everyone, students or everyone that was working and starting a career – to be distracted and become affected by imposter syndrome. When you are working in long isolation through a computer it is not hard to start losing track about who cares about what you are doing and who is interested in it because you are just sending emails, submitting papers, and proposals. So, I think it’s very important to keep track of and keep in contact with students and people working remotely. I think without a physical place to work, you enter this university with people and a big logo in the door and I think that’s something important because you get inside and It’s like, “OK, I’m part of this community, part of this university, part of NASA, part of Stanford, part of whatever you’re working with.” You can miss some of that if you’re just working remotely, you miss a lot of that. I think it takes a lot of effort to continue working in that kind of condition but obviously we’re in an emergency and there are some priorities, but it’s not easy.
You mentioned impostor syndrome. Refresh my memory of what that is and how it affects your sense of communicating with your colleagues.
Well, imposter syndrome is a psychological condition that makes you doubt your skills or accomplishments. It happens a lot when you are working on something very specific, for example in science it is super common, you get the idea that what you’re doing is not important at all and it may not be affecting other people. I would say that 90% of the astronomers I know have been affected by this at some point, and think “OK, this is not important, what I’m doing. How do I transform this knowledge that I am working for to a real impact on the community?” That’s something that I think becomes way more common and harder when you are isolated in your house.
So, it makes you feel less important or less valued, as if you were an imposter and everybody else is real but you’re not?
Yes, exactly that. I think in astronomy it is particularly easy to get that because everything is so far away. It’s hard to keep track of what is the real impact of what you’re doing right here and now. For example, that was one of the questions in the astronaut selection process. One of the questions was “OK, you are an astronomer. Why do you think that is important? Why should we care?” My answer is I’ve been working my whole life with the Hubble Space Telescope, so I said, “Well, the Space Telescope discovered that 95% of the universe is not made of the same atoms that are here in this room. It’s like someone told you that magic exists.” And I think that’s amazing. It was a pretty honest answer. I was saying “That’s important. It may be far away, but it’s important.”
So, you’re doing well in your career and ambitions and so forth. What advice would you give to a student just starting out who would like to have a career like you’re having?
Well, it’s hard to give just one piece of advice, but I would say to find something that you really like and work on that. It may be hard, you may want to become a scientist, or a doctor or anything else, and it may be really hard, but I think it’s harder to work on something that you don’t like for your whole life.
That’s a good point.
I think it’s way, way harder, but at the same time it’s hard to land exactly where you want. In my experience, there is no plan that survives the implementation. You make a plan and think that you’re going to do something, but it never happens the way that you think it will. My strategy was to, in a more practical way, find many things that I really like and apply to all of them, starting from the hardest to the to the easiest one. Well, I succeeded in having a post doc at NASA, but before that I applied to 20 jobs, and I never got any. It was just really rejection, after rejection after rejection. So, I consider my myself very fortunate to be here, but I cannot say that it was the first shot. I think that in the time of social media it’s very easy to just see the stars, the successes of people. No one publishes “Oh, I got rejected at NASA”. But that happens obviously.
That’s good. I probably misstated it when I said that your path has been fairly direct, but you had a lot of rejections along the way and you have to not let them beat you down, but just keep going with what you’re passionate about.
Yeah, and that applies also to the astronaut process. I mean you may want to be an astronaut, then you apply, but it is true that, for example, the commander of Apollo 13, James Lovell, applied to be one of the first round of Mercury astronauts but he got cut for medical reasons and yet he applied again, and he became an astronaut. There are many examples of great people that had to apply many times.
So, we’ve talked a lot about your work. It’s fascinating, but we also want to touch on a few other things, and one of my favorite questions is: you’ve got all this stuff going on in your life with your work and all that, but what do you do for fun?
Well, I grew up in a house full of tools and I like doing things with my hands. We have a pretty old car here, a Subaru from, I think it’s 22 years old now! And I really like to spend time with it learning mechanics. It’s something that I really enjoy. And moving here to the United States was also a blessing for doing hiking and camping around. I’m still trying to comprehend the beauty of the American wilderness. California is amazing. I mean, we are planning a road trip around the United States and traveling is something that I really, really love. It’s something that I could do partly because of my job, but also just for fun. It’s just something that I really, really enjoy.
Do you have any musical talents, perhaps? Play any instruments?
I’ve never been a good musician. I like music, I like music a lot. I listen to it. I enjoy many types of music, mostly rock, electronic, but many other types of music, but I’ve never been gifted with the talent of playing an instrument with my hands.
Well, I regret that I haven’t either, but that’s the way my life has worked out. How about your taste in reading? What book might we find on your nightstand?
Well, right now I’m a lot into psychology books and essays. My wife has started sending me books to better understand her job. And there’s this book called “A Primate’s Memoir” by a professor at Stanford named Robert Sapolsky. It’s a really good book. I read it very recently. It’s an amazing story about this scientist who went to Kenya to study baboons at the age of 19 or 20, with barely any money, doing a PhD in baboon psychology and it’s just amazing. I mean, I love that book.
We also like to ask who, or perhaps what, inspires you?
Wow. Ah, well, that’s a hard question. I don’t know if it’s a single person, but well, of course there’s my PhD supervisor, John Beckman. He has been a huge inspiration to me. He’s an astronomer working at the Canary Islands, but he was also working at NASA Ames thirty years before me, working with this mission called “ASSESS”. They were flying on an airplane to train astronauts, European astronauts, before the first selection of astronauts happened, in the ‘80s. They were working with astronaut Claude Nicollier who would fly twice to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit and basically, they were training human beings to become mechanics in space, which is really hard. And after that he was working also on airborne astronomy with the Kuiper Airborne Observatory and a Concorde that was meant to observe the solar eclipse. He has done many, many things throughout his life, which to me is an inspiration because it is a demonstration that you can have many lives.
We’ve already talked about images and pictures. And we’re going to ask if you will include some pictures when you return the transcript with whatever corrections and changes you make. We do have another question: Do you have a favorite quote or saying, something that you think about or that guides your life values or philosophies?
Well, I think we may be very typical, but one thing that I think of every time we try to do something: “We do it because it is hard”. That’s from John Kennedy and I think it is very inspirational.
Yes, that’s a good one.
Because that includes many things that we do here. Sometimes, for example, when we do astronomy, we always try to justify things because there are useful, like we are going to extract energy from dark matter, but that’s not true. I mean that’s not why we do things. Sometimes it is just because it’s hard. Like why do you want to repair the Hubble Space Telescope? Because it is hard. Because you want to do something that’s really difficult and it will prepare you for the next thing, and so on. So, I will just stand with that quote.
I like that. That’s inspiring. And I did see one item that I kind of skipped past and that is: if you weren’t an astrophysicist for NASA, what would your dream job be?
I don’t know. I think I would say that my other chosen degree would have been engineering, but that’s very similar to what I do now. I think I could easily become a mechanic or a firefighter, like my dad. (laughs).
I was wondering if you were going to go back to firefighter!
Yeah, I mean, it’s not just my father and brother. It’s my cousins and half of my family are firefighters. So, I’m kind of the black sheep! (laughs)
And you said your parents are retired?
Yes, they are both retired. They are happily retired. Right now, they are starting to enjoy their retirement. They are traveling.
Well, knowing how young you are, that makes me feel old! That your parents are retired. Is there anything that we didn’t ask that you wish we had asked, as part of this interview?
No, I think I think everything was covered. It was very complete. Just to say thanks to you all and to NASA for everything.
OK. Well, thank you. This has been a delight and we’re very glad that you carved out some time to do this. I think it’ll turn out to be wonderful. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to get this on paper and get it back to you, and then you can go through it and then we’ll put it in the queue and then you’ll get your 15 minutes of fame up on our website! And after that it goes into the archive and it’s there forever. And that website is open to the public, so your friends, family, and other people can read your interview.
That’s perfect. My mom is going to love it!
Oh, I’m sure. Wonderful Alex. Thank you so much again for chatting with us this morning and we’ll get busy on it and get back to you when it’s ready for your review.
Thank you so much.
Interview conducted by Fred Van Wert and Mark Vorobetz
