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I double-majored in physics and human rights at the University of Connecticut. I wasn’t interested in pursuing physics after college until I took my first astrophysics class with my first woman physics professor. She inspired me to pursue a career in astrophysics. /jcr
#NASAUniverse


In the exciting days after a GRB, I am triggering telescopes, turning their data into a beautiful image of the explosion, and measuring how bright the explosion was. In a typical day, I study our observations of past GRBs to better understand their causes and how they work. /jcr
#NASAUniverse


I use observations from some of the world’s largest optical telescopes to better understand the universe’s most energetic explosions: gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We can't predict GRBs, and their optical counterparts can fade in hours, so trying to catch them is quite exciting! /jcr
#NASAUniverse


Hello! My name is Jillian Rastinejad. I am a fourth-year PhD student studying observational astronomy at Northwestern University. /jcr
#NASAUniverse


Join us today for a special social takeover with Jillian Rastinejad to celebrate the discovery of a game-changing cosmic explosion! Stay tuned while she introduces herself and the work she does in astrophysics.
#NASAUniverse


Science is a cycle of questions and answers … and sometimes a discovery shakes up what we know about the universe! #ICYMI, Swift and Fermi recently detected a gamma-ray burst that didn’t fit into established categories for these powerful events: https://go.nasa.gov/3YEaMib
#NASAUniverse


Our sixth astronomical gift is … an eclipsing six-star system!
Astronomers found a system whose six stars all undergo eclipses, using data from our planet hunter TESS, a supercomputer, and automated eclipse-identifying software. https://go.nasa.gov/3HDSBmu
#NASAUniverse


#OTD in 2009 our Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) launched!
WISE's all-sky survey led to mind-expanding science including:
⚫ Uncovering millions of black holes
⭐ Discovering the coolest class of stars
💡 Imaging the most luminous galaxy

More: https://go.nasa.gov/3URn6Za
#NASAUniverse


Our fourth and fifth astronomical gifts are … Stephan’s Quintet!
When looking at this image from @NASAWebb, Stephan’s Quintet seems like five galaxies hanging around each other — but did you know that one of them is much closer than the others? https://go.nasa.gov/3hoan2p
#NASAUniverse


Four of the galaxies are hanging out together about 290 million light-years away, but the fifth and leftmost galaxy in the image below is actually closer to Earth at just 40 million light-years away! Here’s a labeled view from @chandraxray and a ground-based optical telescope.
#NASAUniverse


#OTD in 1970, @nasa launched its first Earth-orbiting satellite entirely devoted to the study of cosmic X-ray sources. 🚀 Marjorie Townsend, conducting preflight checks with Bruno Rossi in this image, named the satellite Uhuru, which means "freedom" in Swahili.
#NASAUniverse


When two galaxies encounter each other, it takes 1-2 billion years for them to merge and settle down. While the stars already in the galaxies don’t change much, the collision can spark lots of new stars to form! ✨ #MondayMotivation
#NASAUniverse


Our second astronomical gift is … two giant bubbles!
With the Fermi spacecraft, scientists found out that our Milky Way galaxy is blowing bubbles — two of them! Each bubble is about 25,000 light-years tall and glows in gamma rays. https://tmblr.co/Zz_Uqj2dMNkMX
#NASAUniverse


100 years ago, scientists had limited knowledge about the cosmos. #PretendToBeATimeTraveler with our Cosmic Times educational series, and hop through important moments that defined our understanding of how the universe began and how it changed over time: https://go.nasa.gov/3uGkceV
#NASAUniverse


Telescopes help us look back in time — the farther the object, the longer its light takes to reach us! You can #PretendToBeATimeTraveler with @NASAWebb as it collects light from 13.5 billion years ago, when the first stars and galaxies were forming: https://go.nasa.gov/32ZCHAv
#NASAUniverse


Cotton candy … planets? These “super-puffs,” discovered by our @NASAExoplanets Kepler telescope, look as big as Jupiter but are roughly a hundred times lighter in mass. Like real cotton candy, their puffy atmospheres won’t last forever: https://go.nasa.gov/3WhgZi3 #CottonCandyDay
#NASAUniverse


#OTD in 1968, @nasa launched its first successful cosmic explorer. Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2, which could point at and track sources in the sky, is the direct ancestor of current telescopes including @NASAHubble, @chandraxray, and Swift. More: https://go.nasa.gov/3Y2cOIv
#NASAUniverse


Sometimes the stars that grow up together … stay together! This large infrared mosaic captured by our Spitzer telescope is a multigenerational “family portrait” of multiple clusters of stars born from the same dense clumps of gas and dust: https://go.nasa.gov/3VUQZbW #StarrySights
#NASAUniverse


For decades, astronomers generally divided gamma-ray bursts into two categories based on their duration and origin. Now Swift and Fermi have detected a burst that breaks the rules, shaking up what we knew about the universe’s most powerful events: https://go.nasa.gov/3HiA6DP
#NASAUniverse


#OTD in 1998, our Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) launched into space to hunt for water and other molecules linked to life as we know it. For nearly seven years, SWAS helped us study water in the Milky Way, star formation, comets, and more: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/facilities-technology/telescopes-instruments/submillimeter-wave-astronomy-satellite
#NASAUniverse


The oldest observable light in the universe is in the same wavelength range that cooks your food — microwaves! The cosmic microwave background was emitted about 13.8 billion years ago, when the universe was just 380,000 years old. https://tmblr.co/Zz_Uqj2bmSLWy #MicrowaveOvenDay
#NASAUniverse


Some massive star clusters shine bright for our Fermi telescope’s gamma-ray eyes due to the numerous fast-spinning pulsars they are likely to contain. This sky map highlights three of our galaxy’s largest globular clusters plus a few notable binary star systems. #StarrySights
#NASAUniverse


The nitrogen in your DNA was once inside a small star. 🧬 That star shed its outer layers at the end of its life, forming a planetary nebula and freeing its nitrogen to become part of our solar system. #MondayMotivation
#NASAUniverse


#OTD in 1990, Astro-1 was launched on the space shuttle Columbia. It was a science platform that carried one X-ray and three UV telescopes. This pioneering mission gave us a nine-day glimpse of the high-energy universe. Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/3VjYNUJ
#NASAUniverse


Our Swift observatory doesn’t just have fast reflexes. It can also snap stunning pics with its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope! This view of Omega Centauri, our galaxy’s biggest globular cluster, shows millions of stars in various life stages: https://go.nasa.gov/3gOlhyk #StarrySights
#NASAUniverse


#ICYMI: Scientists used the @NASA_NCCS Discover supercomputer to explore how weak jets from monster black holes affect galaxies similar to our own Milky Way. Watch this video to learn more about how simulations help fill in the details: https://go.nasa.gov/3isWgZM
#NASAUniverse


The Pleiades is a star cluster you can see without a telescope! Though called the “seven sisters” for its brightest members, the cluster contains over a thousand stars loosely bound by gravity. Our WISE telescope captured this infrared image: https://go.nasa.gov/3XJ1HE7 #StarrySights
#NASAUniverse


Even baby stars burp!

Data from our retired Spitzer Space Telescope shows that young protostars can experience outbursts about every 400 years. These eruptions are a sign that the growing stars are devouring gas and dust from disks that surround them. https://go.nasa.gov/3gRVxkj
#NASAUniverse


Curious about stars? The Sun is a main sequence star, which means that it converts hydrogen into helium in its core in a process that keeps it from collapsing. It’ll become a red giant in about 5 billion years when it runs out of hydrogen. Learn more: https://universe.nasa.gov/stars/types/
#NASAUniverse


Our universe is speckled with stars, with billions just in our galaxy. Some stars live alone or in twos or threes, but others are bound together by gravity into much larger communities. In honor of @NASAHubble’s exploration of #StarrySights, let’s talk about star clusters! 🧵 1/6
#NASAUniverse


Globular clusters are stellar "dinosaurs" scattered throughout the universe, containing some of the oldest stars in the universe. These clusters can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to millions of stars, packed tightly together in a dense clump. 3/6
#NASAUniverse


Star clusters are divided into a few different types, based on how many stars are in a cluster and how tightly they’re bound by gravity. Stars in clusters typically have a shared origin, and they can live very close together or can be spread out over hundreds of light-years. 2/6
#NASAUniverse


Open clusters have fewer members, usually a few hundred stars or less. Most open clusters are much younger than globular clusters, and they’re also much less dense and less tightly bound than globular clusters. 4/6
#NASAUniverse


Scientists are interested in how star clusters form and evolve. Some disperse and spread out over time, while others remain tightly bound together by gravity. The different types of stars in clusters also have various life spans, so they change and die off as a cluster ages. 5/6
#NASAUniverse


Many different @nasa observatories study star clusters using different types of light. Alongside @NASAHubble, we’ll be highlighting how some of our other telescopes help us learn about these stellar communities! 6/6
#NASAUniverse


Stars in globular clusters pack snugly together. Messier 28, for example, crams about 50,000 stars into a region just 60 light-years (350 trillion miles) across. The Sun only has about 400 known stellar neighbors that close. #MondayMotivation
#NASAUniverse


Thanks to @nasa’s WISE, retired Spitzer Space Telescope, and @ESA’s retired Herschel Space Telescope, the constellation Orion has a stellar story to tell. Radiation from massive stars is altering the clouds of gas and dust they reside in. Learn more: https://go.nasa.gov/3EpyRjg
#NASAUniverse


Elizabeth Apala is a senior research assistant doing minority recruitment and outreach @NASAGoddard while representing her Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee heritage. Fun Fact: Elizabeth enjoys signing in American Sign Language and managing her miniature goat farm! #NAHeritage
#NASAUniverse


To the unaided eye, the Orion Nebula appears as a tiny, hazy spot within the sword of the constellation Orion. But it’s a vast stellar nursery of roiling dust and gas where vast numbers of new stars are forming. #MondayMotivation
#NASAUniverse

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