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Astrophysics Science Division (660) Local News Archive

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Future Hiring at Goddard

02/03/2021
The Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is hiring soon!

Rita Sambruna and Richard Mushotzky Selected as AAS Fellows

02/02/2021
Rita Sambruna is cited “For exceptional contributions to the fundamental understanding of relativistic jets from supermassive black holes, for being an ally to, and role model for, underrepresented groups in the field; and for leadership and service.” Richard Mushotzky, who retired from GSFC and is now a professor at the University of Maryland, is cited “For his leadership in X-ray and multiwavelength imaging, timing, and spectroscopy focusing on the physics of black hole accretion, evolution of the elements, and cosmology.”

EarthShine proposal featured on cover of GSFC's Cutting Edge

01/26/2021
Cover of Cutting Edge magazine In "Our World as an Exoplanet," Padi Boyd, Emily Wilson, and Alan Smale are featured as they discuss their proposal to use a lunar-surface experiment suite called EarthShine to look at Earth as an exoplanet proxy - a representative of a habitable and inhabited planet we might find orbiting another star.

"Six Stars, Six Eclipses" result featured in the New York Times

01/22/2021
In today's New York Times: an article about the sextuple star system discovered in TESS data by Brian Powell, with quotes from Brian (and a HEASARC mention). The preprint is available here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.03433.pdf.
Brian Powell

Rich Kelley Awarded AAS HEAD Innovation Prize

01/12/2021
Congratulations to Rich Kelley who was awarded the inaugural AAS HEAD Innovation Prize "for his unflagging effort to make the transformational capabilities of the X-ray microcalorimeter available to the high-energy astrophysics community."

Congratulations to Rita Sambruna for being honored as an APS Fellow!

10/13/2020
Rita Sambruna has been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) for 2020. This distinct honor signifies recognition by one's professional peers for outstanding contributions to physics. Each year, no more than one-half of one percent of the society’s membership is recognized by this honor.

Two SED Scientists Honored as APS Fellows

10/13/2020
Li-Jen Chen was nominated by the APS Division of Plasma Physics for pioneering observational and theoretical contributions to the understanding of collisionless plasma dynamics; especially collisionless magnetic reconnection.

Rita M. Sambruna was selected by the APS Division of Astrophysics for exceptional contributions to the fundamental understanding of relativistic jets from supermassive black holes, and for leadership in, and service to, the field of astrophysics.
Li Jen ChenRita Sambruna

Robert H. Goddard Award Winners

06/23/2020
Congratulations to all the 660 winners of the Robert H. Goddard awards:

Caroline Kilbourne – Award of Merit
Eli Dwek – Award of Merit
Julie McEnery – Leadership
Elisa Quintana – Leadership, Mentoring (two awards!)
Stephen Rinehart – Leadership
Aki Roberge – Leadership
Josh Schleider – Leadership
Sheila Rahming – Secretarial/Clerical
Petrus Bult – Science
Jeremy Schnittman – Science
Will Zhang – Science
TESS Science Support Center Team – Science Teams
Origins Space Telescope Mission Concept Study Team – Science Teams
LUVOIR Science and Technology Definition Team – Science Teams

First AAS Fellows include ASD Scientists

02/28/2020
The Fellows program of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), the major organization of professional astronomers in North America, was established in 2019 to honor members for their contributions toward the AAS mission of enhancing and sharing humanity's scientific understanding of the universe. The following members of ASD were honored among the first group of AAS Fellows, announced Feb. 25:

Edward Cheng
Alice Harding
Sangeeta Malhotra
Maxim Markevitch
John Mather
William Pence
Tod Strohmayer
Jean Hebb Swank
Kimberly Weaver

2019 John C. Lindsay Award for Space Science

12/11/2019
Photo of Keith and ZavenDrs. Keith Gendreau and Zaven Arzoumanian are the joint winners of the 2019 John C. Lindsay Award for Space Science. Keith and Zaven are being recognized for their development of the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) instrument, and the revelations of the physics of neutron stars and their environments that NICER is producing. Keith is the PI of NICER and Zaven is the Deputy PI.

Regina Caputo Selected as a Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellow

11/20/2019
Congratulations to Regina Caputo on her selection as a Nancy Grace Roman Technology Fellow.

Black Hole Week was September 23-27

09/23/2019
Have you ever thought about visiting a black hole? We sure hope not. However, if you're absolutely convinced that a black hole is your ideal vacation spot, watch this video before you blast off to learn more about them and (more importantly) how to stay safe.

2019 Government and Commercial Invention of the Year

05/28/2019
Congratulations to Keith Gendreau (Code 662), Zaven Arzoumanian (Code 662), and Steven Kenyon (Code 543). NASA’s Inventions and Contributions Board have selected the winner for the 2019 Government and Commercial Invention of the Year, and the winner is Miniaturized High Speed Modulated X-Ray source (MXS).

Developed in support of the NICER instrument, the MXS is a small, low cost option for high-speed modulation of X-ray intensity. The miniaturized X-ray source can be modulated in intensity from completely off to full intensity, over 100 keV, on subnanosecond timescales. The high speed switching capability and miniature size make possible many new technologies including X-ray-based communication, compact time resolved X-ray diffraction, novel X-ray fluorescence instruments, low precise dose medical X-rays, and more.

Thank you Keith, Zaven and Steve for representing Goddard while advancing research and development in a field that benefits all of us.

Poster Blowout 2019 is in the books!

02/27/2019
photo of people at the poster party

Photos from this year's Poster Blowout are available now. Congratulations to everyone, especially this year's winners!

NICER Nominated for Rotary National Award for Space Achievement

02/07/2019
photo of Avi and Elisa with Science-on-a-sphere NICER has been nominated for the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation's prestigious Stellar Award in recognition of recognizes the NICER team’s hard work and exceptional accomplishments. The PI, Dr. Keith Gendreau, and a guest are invited as representatives of the team to attend the 33rd annual Space Awards Gala, to be held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Houston, Texas, on April 26. They are also invited to participate in a tour of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, followed by a luncheon at the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake on the day of the gala, when the Stellar Award winners will be announced.

2018 John C. Lindsay Award for Space Science

08/03/2018
photo of Jane Rigby Jane Rigby is the winner of the 2018 John C. Lindsay Award for Space Science. Jane is being recognized for her leadership on the Magellan Evolution of Galaxies Spectroscopic and Ultraviolet Reference Atlas (Megasaura). Jane has led the Megasaura project since its inception in 2010.

Gehrels Memorial Meeting

06/06/2018
Gehrels Memorial Meeting
On May 21-22, 2018, over 100 colleagues from around the globe gathered at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the life and career of Neil Gehrels at a memorial symposium. Talks spanned the range of Neil’s scientific interests (cosmic rays, gamma-ray bursts, gravitational waves) and programmatic roles (Compton, Swift, Fermi, and WFIRST), as well as personal reminiscences of a universally admired mentor, colleague, and friend. We were also pleased to publicly announce that, as a result of a generous donation from the Gehrels family, the nationally recognized prize doctoral position offered by the Joint Space-Science Institute will be renamed the Neil Gehrels Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship.

The meeting’s webpage, including talks, can be found here:
https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/conferences/gehrels_memorial

Recent Awards from the American Astronautical Society

03/27/2018
Congratulations to Goddard scientists Ira Thorpe and Jake Slutsky, both in 663, who are part of the LISA Pathfinder (LPF) team, which was recently awarded the 2017 Space Technology Award from the American Astronautical Society. Other Goddard employees who are on the LPF team are Jim O’Donnell, Peiman Maghami, and Oscar Hu in Code 591. Jesse Leitner in Code 300 received the Industrial Leadership Award. Harley Thronson received the AAS President’s Recognition Award for a decade of chairing the Goddard Symposium planning team.
photo of Ira Thorpe and AAS staff photo of Harley and AAS staff
Left: Ira Thorpe with Jim Way and Carol Lane of AAS. Right: Harley Thronson with Jim Way of AAS. Click to enlarge.

Professor Saku Tsuneta, Director General of ISAS, visits

02/26/2018
photo of Tsuneta, Hartman, and Kelley
Colleen Hartman and Richard Kelley (662) present Professor Saku Tsuneta, Director General, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan, with a plaque commemorating the strong scientific collaboration in astrophysics between NASA and JAXA.

Poster Blowout 2018

02/05/2018
Note from the Director:
I would like to thank the Director’s Science Committee for putting on an amazingly successful event where scientists and engineers across Goddard shared their work and made new contacts. The interdisciplinary interactions were especially exciting and crossed all four science disciplines.
Best,
Colleen

Click the title of this news item or the image below for more images from the poster party. scientists standing in front of a poster

Congratulations to Charles Bennett, Gary Hinshaw, Norman Jarosik, Lyman Page Jr., David Spergel and the WMAP Science Team for winning the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

12/03/2017
Congratulations to Charles Bennett, Gary Hinshaw, Norman Jarosik, Lyman Page Jr., David Spergel and the WMAP Science Team for winning the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics on Dec. 3! The citation reads: “For detailed maps of the early universe that greatly improved our knowledge of the evolution of the cosmos and the fluctuations that seeded the formation of galaxies.” The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was founded in 2012 by Yuri Milner to recognize those individuals who have made profound contributions to human knowledge. The team also includes:

Chris Barnes, Olivier Doré, Joanna Dunkley, Ben Gold, Michael Greason, Mark Halpern, Robert Hill, Al Kogut, Eiichiro Komatsu, David Larson, Michele Limon, Stephan Meyer, Michael Nolta, Nils Odegard, Hiranya Peiris, Kendrick Smith, Greg Tucker, Licia Verde, Janet Weiland, Ed Wollack, and Ned Wright

Congratulations to the many ASD members who were involved in the exciting gravitational wave and electromagnetic counterpart discovery of merging neutron stars, and the subsequent media activity around the discovery!

10/23/2017
Scientists:

Scott Barthelmy - Gamma-ray Coordinates Network system
Eric Burns - Fermi gamma ray burst study
Jordan Camp – GSFC LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) PI
Brad Cenko - Swift PI
Tito Dal Canton - Gravitational wave localization maps; Virgo, joint LIGO/Virgo-Fermi-GBM study
Amy Lien - Swift follow up study
Julie McEnery - Fermi Project Scientist
Frank Marshall - Swift follow up study
Judy Racusin - Fermi gamma ray burst study, Swift follow-up study
Leo Singer - Gravitational wave localization maps, GROWTH follow-up study, joint LIGO/Virgo-Fermi-GBM study
Eleonora Troja - Chandra & HST follow-up, Swift follow-up study

Communications Team:

Elizabeth Ferrara - Fermi social media
Barb Mattson - Traditional & social media coordination
Sara Mitchell - Social media coordination & content creation
Brian Monroe - Animator
Frank Reddy - Cross-organizational coordination & writer for nasa.gov press release
Claire Saravia - Live shots
Amber Straughn - ASD Associate Director
Dewayne Washington - HQ/GSFC coordination
Scott Wiessinger - Video & multimedia
Amber Straughn

Congratulations to the Astrophysics Science Division scientists who are PIs and Co-Is on the recently announced Astrophysics Missions of Opportunity and Medium-Class Explorer missions!

08/09/2017
  • ISS-TAO (Transient Astrophysics Observer on the ISS), a Mission of Opportunity proposal submitted to the 2016 Explorer opportunity, was selected for a Phase A study. ISS-TAO team members include PI Jordan Camp (663), Scott Barthelmy (661), Rob Petre (662), Judy Racusin (661), Brad Cenko (661), Frank Marshall (661), Jeremy Schnittman (663), Andy Ptak (662), and Amy Lien (661), Leo Singer (661), and Tod Strohmeyer (662). ISS-TAO is a wide-field X-ray transient detector aboard the International Space Station that would observe numerous events per year of X-ray transients related to compact objects. The mission’s primary goal is the detection of X-ray counterparts to gravitational waves produced by neutron stars merging with black holes and other neutron stars. Other targets would be supernova shocks, neutron star bursts, and high redshift gamma-ray bursts.
  • Rob Petre (662), Andy Ptak (662), Alan Smale (660), and Lynne Valencic (662) are co-Is on Arcus (PI Randall Smith, SAO), selected as a concept study for a Medium-Class Explorer mission. Arcus would study stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies using high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy to characterize the interactions between these objects and the diffuse million-degrees gas that surrounds and permeates them.
  • Alan Smale (660) and Terri Brandt (661) are collaborators on COSI-X (PI Steve Boggs/UCB), selected as a concept study for an Explorer Mission of Opportunity. COSI-X is a balloon-borne, wide-field-of-view telescope designed to survey the gamma-ray sky at 0.2-5 MeV, performing high-resolution spectroscopy, wide-field imaging, and polarization measurements. COSI-X would map gamma-rays from antimatter around the Milky Way's center, as well as from newly-formed radioactive elements in the debris of stellar explosions.
The NASA press release announcing the selections is here: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-proposals-to-study-galaxies-stars-planets

Goddard Center Director Remarks on Passing of Neil Gehrels

02/11/2017
"Our center has lost a dear friend and astronomy pioneer, and his spirit will always live on in our work, said Goddard Center Director Chris Scolese. "Those of us who were fortunate to work with Neil know of his unwavering enthusiasm for science and unselfish generosity in mentoring others."

Neil Gehrels Awarded $1M 2017 Dan David Prize

02/10/2017
Neil Gehrels was posthumously awarded the $1 million 2017 Dan David Prize for "being the principal investigator of NASA's Swift Gamma Ray Burst Mission, which has transformed our view of the transient and variable sky in gamma-rays and in X-rays." Neil is one of three laureates announced this year in the field of astronomy. The Dan David Prize is headquartered at Tel Aviv University.

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  • Last Updated: 04/19/2021