IYA News
Welcome to the International Year of Astronomy!
The kickoff event for the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) in the United States took place on Tuesday January 6th, 2009 at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, California. Beginning and ending with sidewalk observing, the proceedings featured introductory remarks by U.S. IYA leaders Doug Isbell and Steve Pompea, followed by NASA IYA lead Hashima Hasan, who unveiled a sneak peak of mural-sized images of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 from NASA’s Great Observatories. NASA’s contribution to the event also included a display of images from the "From Earth to the Universe" global cornerstone project and the "Visions of the Universe: Four Centuries of Discovery" exhibit for libraries.
Visit the U.S. IYA Newscenter for the full scoop – including a virtual ribbon cutting of the IYA presence in Second Life and news on the world premier of the new PBS television documentary "400 Years of the Telescope".
100 Hours of Astronomy: April 2-5, 2009
The 100 Hours of Astronomy Cornerstone Project is a worldwide event consisting of a wide range of public outreach activities, live science center, research observatory webcasts and sidewalk astronomy events.One of the key goals of 100 Hours of Astronomy is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. The project is coordinated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and managed by the charitable group Astronomers Without Borders (AWB).
“Around the World in 80 Telescopes” is a 24-hour round-the-world webcast that is part of the “100 Hours of Astronomy.” Several NASA missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope, will be involved in this live event that will allow the public to peer into the working of astronomical observatories around the world. See the press release "NASA Joins Around the World in 80 Telescopes." Schedule for the NASA mission webcasts, with all times given in UT (EDT = UT-4 hours, PDT=UT-7 hours):
- 3 April 17:20 — Hubble Space Telescope
- 3 April 17:40 — Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
- 3 April 18:00 — Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
- 3 April 19:20 — SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) and TRACE (Transition Region and Coronal Explorer)
- 3 April 19:40 — STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory)
- 3 April 20:20 — GALEX (GAlaxy Evolution eXplorer)
- 3 April 20:40 — Chandra X-ray Observatory
- 3 April 21:20 — Spitzer Space Telescope
- 4 April 07:05 — Kepler Mission
"Sun Day" April 5th, has been set aside to highlight and celebrate the Sun. A good day to watch the Live view from the Sun from NASA missions such as Stereo, or SOHO.
Want to participate in 100 Hours of Astronomy, IYA or other education and public outreach events associated with NASA? Here are some of your choices for April 2009:
| By NASA Center | By NASA Mission | By IYA Cornerstone Project |
|---|---|---|
| Goddard Space Flight Center's 100 Hours of Astronomy | Chandra X-ray Observatory | 100 Hours of Astronomy |
| Langley Research Center's Yuri Night 2009 (other E/PO) |
Hubble Space Telescope | From Earth to the Universe |
| Marshall Space Flight Center's Great Moonbuggy Race (other E/PO) |
Spitzer Space Telescope | Around the World in 80 Telescopes |
| Fermi | ||
| GALEX | ||
| Kepler | ||
| Swift |
100 Hours of Astronomy at Goddard Space Flight Center
| Event Date | April 2-5, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Event Venue | Goddard Space Flight Center (unless otherwise specified) |
| Description | The Astrophysics Science Division at NASA Goddard is planning a 4-day series of events to correspond with the 100 Hours of Astronomy. Events will highlight the diverse science and engineering efforts at GSFC. Each day will target different themes and audiences. |
| Details | Day 1 (April 2)
|
| Website | http://universe.nasa.gov/100hours/ |
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
| Description | Chandra is heavily involved with several IYA2009 activities. Specifically, Chandra will be featured in the "100 Hours of Astronomy - Around the World in 80 Telescopes" webcast, "From Earth to the Universe" project, the "365 Days of Astronomy" podcasts, the Great Observatories image unveilings to museums, has special IYA e-cards, and more. |
|---|---|
| Website | http://chandra.harvard.edu/chronicle |
Hubble Space Telescope
| Description | For "100 Hours of Astronomy" Hubble will be featured in "Around the World in 80 Telescopes" webcast at 17:20 UT (1:20 PM EDT) on Friday April 3, and will see the culmination of "Hubble's Next Discovery - You Decide." |
|---|---|
| Details | People around the world voted to select the next object the Hubble Space Telescope would view, choosing from a list of objects Hubble had never observed before. Voting concluded on March 1. The winning image - of Arp 274, a system of three galaxies that appear to be partially overlapping - will be released between April 2 and 5, during the IYA's 100 Hours of Astronomy. |
| Website | http://youdecide.hubblesite.org/ |
| Description | Hubble is also involved in the IYA celebrations through the "From Earth to the Universe" and the "Visions of the Universe" projects. |
|---|---|
| Details | Visions of the Universe: Four Centuries of Discovery, a traveling exhibit for public libraries, opened at eight libraries across the U.S. on January 21, 2009. The exhibit celebrates the International Year of Astronomy by using dramatic images from NASA space science missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope, along with historic drawings and diagrams to explore how our views of the universe have changed over the past 400 years. |
| Website | http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/visions/ |
Spitzer Space Telescope
| Description | Spitzer is
participating in the 24-hour live webcast "Around the World in 80
Telescopes" as part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy event in conjunction
with the International Year of Astronomy celebrating the 400th
anniversary of Galileo's first astronomical observations using a
telescope. The Spitzer portion of the webcast is scheduled for 21:20 UTC (2:20 PM PDT) on
Friday, April 3, 2009, live from Caltech. |
|---|---|
| Website | http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer/index.shtml |
Fermi
| Description | Fermi is
participating in the 24-hour live webcast "Around the World in 80
Telescopes" as part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy event. The Fermi portion of the webcast is scheduled for 18:00 UTC (2:00 PM EDT) on Friday, April 3, 2009. Fermi and Swift E/PO are located at Sonoma State University which will also host a "From
Earth to the Universe" exhibit and local 100 Hours of Astronomy events. |
|---|---|
| Details |
|
| Website | http://epo.sonoma.edu |
GALEX
| Description | GALEX is
participating in the 24-hour live webcast "Around the World in 80
Telescopes" as part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy event in conjunction
with the International Year of Astronomy celebrating the 400th
anniversary of Galileo's first astronomical observations using a
telescope. The GALEX portion of the webcast is scheduled for 20:20 UTC (1:20 PM PDT) on
Friday, April 3, 2009, live from Caltech. |
|---|---|
| Website | http://www.galex.caltech.edu/ |
Kepler Mission
| Description | Kepler is
participating in the 24-hour live webcast "Around the World in 80
Telescopes" as part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy event. The Kepler portion of the webcast is scheduled for 07:05 UTC (4:05 AM EDT) on Saturday, April 4, 2009. Kepler E/PO also offers a Speakers Bureau and Teacher Workshops on April 4 (at
CfA, Cambridge, MA) and April 25 (at the National Air and Space Museum,
DC). A star party featuring the Kepler Star Wheel will happen at the Lawrence Hall of Science on April 4. |
|---|---|
| Website | http://kepler.nasa.gov/ed/ |
Swift
| Description | Swift is
participating in the 24-hour live webcast "Around the World in 80
Telescopes" as part of the 100 Hours of Astronomy event. The Swift portion of the webcast is scheduled for 17:40 UTC (1:40 PM EDT) on Friday, April 3, 2009. Swift and Fermi E/PO are located at Sonoma State University which will also host a
"From Earth to the Universe" exhibit and local 100 Hours of Astronomy
events. |
|---|---|
| Details |
|
| Website | http://epo.sonoma.edu |
Monthly Feature
During each month of the International Year of Astronomy, we'll highlight some key NASA missions, space science discoveries, and night-sky wonders that you can discover with your own observations and explorations, and we'll connect you to related NASA resources and events.
Join us each month of 2009 as we explore:
| 2009 | » Hot Topics | » Go Observe! |
|---|---|---|
| January | Telescopes and Space Probes: Today's Starry Messengers | Venus |
| February | Our Solar System | The Moon |
| March | Observing at Night... and in the Day | Saturn |
| April | Galaxies and the Distant Universe | The Whirlpool Galaxy |
| May | Our Sun | The Sun |
| June | Clusters of Stars | The Hercules Cluster |
| July | Black Holes | Our Galaxy: the Milky Way |
| August | Rocks and Ice in the Solar System | Perseids |
| September | Planets and Moons | Jupiter |
| October | What is the Fate of the Universe? | Andromeda |
| November | The Lives of Stars | The Crab Nebula |
| December | Discovering New Worlds | The Orion Nebula |
Additional News
Additional IYA related News & Events can be found on the official IYA News and Press Releases pages.
Galaxies Collide
Galaxies are in constant motion. This pair of crashing galaxies is called "The Antennae" because the long streamers of stars thrown off early in the collision resemble an insect’s antennae.