A Voorwerpish Comic

Sometimes, as an astronomer, I get to do some really weird stuff. This summer is one of those times. I actually, thanks to project PI (i.e. lead) Bill Keel, got an opportunity to help produce a comic book telling the story of how a Dutch school teacher found the light echo of a once bright Quasar. Light...

The (Galaxy Zoo) Keepers of the Data

Last week I had a fabulous opportunity to sit down and talk with Galaxy Zookeepers Jordan Raddick and Chris Lintott. Here is the audio from our conversation – Enjoy! Star Stryder: An Interview with Zookeepers [Mp3 - 13.8 Mb] As you may have periodically read in this blog, I’m currently working on...

Galaxies: Born Blue, Red when Dead, Fat Die First

I just had the strangest realization. Stepping into the Galaxy Evolution session of oral presentations I got to listen to the AstroPixie present her research. Like me, she is a UT person (I got my PhD, she is getting her PhD). I knew that. What I didn’t know is we both have/had one of the same...

Making a Milky Way

According to research presented by Eric Gawiser of Rutgers University, ancestors of Milky Way (MW) like galaxies appear to be Lyman Alpha emitting galaxies. These progenitors were about 1/10th the size of the MW, 1/20th the mass of the MW, and 1/40th the stellar mass of the MW (the rest of the mass is gas...

Blue Blobs – Splat on the sky

Duilia deMello of the Catholic University of America and NASA Goddard is presenting in the afternoon galaxies press conference. I’m in here reporting while Rebecca edits, and Phil and Fraser are listening to the NASA town hall meeting. In peering around the universe we tend to stumble across a lot of...

Galaxies in the Mist

[warning Will Robinson: the voices in my head that used to help write Slacker Astronomy are forcing me to write in the genre of a sensationalized nature special] One of the most elusive creatures speculated to lurk within the sky are the mysterious very high-redshift Lyman alpha emission galaxies. These...