Last week’s loss of the $420 million Glory satellite has sent NASA into an intensive investigation to find out why two climate change missions in a row — flying aboard the same type of rocket — crashed due to what apparently was a similar technical glitch. Orbital Sciences out of Dulles, Va. is the company [...]
It’s difficult to imagine these white telescope domes towering over a parched brown landscape made even more arid by the near-constant whistle of high-altitude winds. It’s stranger still to consider that in the desert below those domes, tough and grieving women have been searching in vain for decades for the sun-bleached remains of loved ones [...]
The first time Peter Delamere saw an aurora, he sort of wished it would get out of the way. Delamere was at the time an undergraduate student at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and he was taking an observational astronomy course. Those pesky Northern Lights really obscured his view of the stars, he complained. One of [...]
Not all accomplished scientists like talking to reporters, and not all of them are good at it. Brian Marsden embodied these rare characteristics: He was an amazing contributor to his field and he was approachable, helpful and kind, even on the tightest of deadlines. And so even though I never met the man, I feel [...]