Weekly Space Hangout: November 16, 2022 - Up, Up, & Away with Dr. Jacob Izraelevitz and JPL's Venus Aerial Robotic Balloons

Weekly Space Hangout: November 16, 2022 – Up, Up, & Away with Dr. Jacob Izraelevitz and JPL’s Venus Aerial Robotic Balloons

This week we are joined by Dr. Jacob Izraelevitz, Principal Investigator of the JPL project that is developing robotic balloons — currently called aerobots — that will eventually (hopefully) lead to successful exploration of Venus. In July, 2022, a one-third scale prototype aerobot successfully completed two test flights and achieved controlled flight at more than 4000 feet. Read More

Weekly Space Hangout: November 9, 2022 - Untying an Early "Cosmic Knot" with Dr. Andrey Vayner

Weekly Space Hangout: November 9, 2022 – Untying an Early “Cosmic Knot” with Dr. Andrey Vayner

This week we are joined by Dr. Andrey Vayner, a member of a multinational team that has been studying SDSS J165202.64+172852.3, an “extremely red” QUASAR that dates back to the earliest days of the Universe, some 11.5 billion years ago. Using data collected by NIRSpec, JWST’s near infrared spectrograph, the team has been able to confirm the presence of not just one, but three, companion galaxies of the QUASAR that are actively in the process of merging. Read More