Categories: Weekly Space Hangout

Weekly Space Hangout – January 24, 2014: LEGO Mars Rover & the Supernova We Missed in the Star Party!

Host: Fraser Cain

Special Guests: Stephen Pakbaz, designer of the LEGO Mars Rover Kit, and Ray Sanders from CosmoQuest, who is unboxing and building the kit as we hang out!

Astrojournalists: Morgan Rehnberg, Sondy Springmann, Elizabeth Howell, Casey Dreier, David Dickinson, Nicole Gugliucci, Mike Simmons

Today’s Stories – we’ve got a whole bunch this week!

Casey Dreier (planetary.org):
Legislative Blitz in D.C.
NASA shuts down the ASRG program (plutonium-238)
Rosetta Wakes Up!

Sondy Springmann (@sondy):
Water on Ceres?

Nicole Gugliucci (Cosmoquest.org / @NoisyAstronomer):
Chang’e’s Lunar Panorama
Supernova in M82 – and we’ve got footage of where we caught it on Sun, Jan 19, in the Virtual Star Party, but no one realized it was there!
Cosmo Academy

Elizabeth Howell (@howellspace):
Mock Mars mission
Will Spacewalks Happen On Expedition 40? NASA Undecided Due To Leak Investigation
Dusty, Windy And Damp: Five NASA Probes To Hunt Down Climate Change in 2014

Morgan Rehnberg (cosmicchatter.org / @cosmic_chatter):
Benchmarking NASA’s quantum compute

David Dickinson (@Astroguyz):
The Moon meets Saturn this Weekend
Video of Venus thru Inferior Conjunction
Video of Jupiter rotation
Nearby Brown Dwarf Imaged

Mike Simmons (Astronomers without Borders):
John Dobson bio

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page.

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast with Dr. Pamela Gay. Here's a link to my Mastodon account.

Recent Posts

OSIRIS-REx Returns This Sunday!

On Sunday, September 24th, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission will deliver samples from the asteroid Benny.

7 hours ago

Machine Learning Algorithms Can Find Anomalous Needles in Cosmic Haystacks

The face of astronomy is changing. Though narrow-field point-and-shoot astronomy still matters (JWST anyone?), large…

16 hours ago

The JWST is Forcing Astronomers to Rethink Early Galaxies

The JWST has surprised astronomers again. Contrary to our existing understanding, the JWST showed us…

1 day ago

The JWST Just Found Carbon on Europa, Boosting the Moon’s Potential Habitability

Most planets and moons in the Solar System are clearly dead and totally unsuitable for…

2 days ago

If You Could See Gravitational Waves, the Universe Would Look Like This

Our biology limits our vision. Our eyes can only perceive specific wavelengths of light. But…

2 days ago

Solar Sails Could Reach Mars in Just 26 Days

A recent study submitted to Acta Astronautica explores the potential for using aerographite solar sails…

2 days ago