JWST

[Rommie]

So, beautiful images! True story: WGBH in Boston called me up on Tuesday afternoon to get a few "local astronomer weighs in" filler clips. It aired in Boston and I heard it on NHPR as well (ie the New Hampshire one), so I admitted to all of New England that I cried looking at the Carina nebula picture.

(F recorded the audio but not sure how to put it up.)

Also, when it rains it pours- or rather, when something like JWST happens a lot of people call up a place like Harvard asking to talk to an astronomer, and even non-tenured fancy people get to do stuff if you are ok with quick turn around. The Washington Post wanted someone to work with their graphics guy to label the images, and this is the resulting piece. Turned out great IMO!

Can't wait to see what the telescope releases next!

[lady_*nix]

OMG congrats!

[pumpkinpi]

Very cool that you got to do some press. We got calls at my work, too, and I let one of my staff handle the pieces. I'll do it if I have to, but if I can push it off onto someone else, I will.

My last piece was about the ISS after Russian invaded Ukraine. A station contacted us and wanted to do an interview, but I said no. I had already told my staff that I didn't want to bring politics into our planetarium shows. A week or so later they just showed up at the museum with a camera, so I had to do the piece. They kept pushing and pushing me to say what I thought would happen to the ISS. I eventually said that I have faith the partnership will continue

Now back to our regular news.....I definitely cried, too. It was fun that one of my colleagues and I could watch the image release in our cubes across from each other.

[Rommie]

Yeah, it definitely made me appreciate that I have a job where I could spend all morning nerding out about the new images, then in the meeting that afternoon with my boss and a student we spend the first few minutes just geeking out together talking about which one's our favorite. Like, it's a pretty obvious job perk in this line of work, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be thankful for it.

[SciFiFisher]

That is amazing stuff Rommie and PumpkinPi. I think the only time I really got interviewed for anything was by an army newsletter/paper. I was the officer in charge of the Nuclear Biological Chemical De-contamination Station for our hospital. My role was to wear protective gear and pretend to tell everyone what to do.

The article was pretty good. I was even quoted. "They come in to the station and we peel them like an onion while we decontaminate and triage the patients".

[pumpkinpi]

That is amazing stuff Rommie and PumpkinPi. I think the only time I really got interviewed for anything was by an army newsletter/paper. I was the officer in charge of the Nuclear Biological Chemical De-contamination Station for our hospital. My role was to wear protective gear and pretend to tell everyone what to do.

The article was pretty good. I was even quoted. "They come in to the station and we peel them like an onion while we decontaminate and triage the patients".

You know how to talk layperson talk!

[Thumper]

That is an awesome quote! Congrats Rommie!

[Thumper]

Oh just read the article. Niiice.

[Rommie]

Thanks all! Turns out the spread got the middle of the front section in the Sunday edition of the Washington Post. Luckily they're sending me a copy, and my friend who works at Space Telescope snagged one bc it lit up their Slack channel- everyone really liked it!

Btw, if anyone needs more JWST in their lives, I'm finding the best stuff right now is on Twitter as scientists just process their data and put up some early pretty images. Like check out this galaxy- holy crap!

Also amazing, turns out my student is on a team frantically analyzing the JWST data from TRAPPIST-1, which was supposed to happen later but got moved up. So proud of him! What a great project to kickstart your career on.

[Thumper]

Sweet picture. Also, a professor being supportive and enthusiastic about their student... What a concept!

[pumpkinpi]

Also amazing, turns out my student is on a team frantically analyzing the JWST data from TRAPPIST-1, which was supposed to happen later but got moved up. So proud of him! What a great project to kickstart your career on.

The pictures are awesome but what I'm most excited about is the exoplanet science!!!!

[pumpkinpi]

Btw, if anyone needs more JWST in their lives, I'm finding the best stuff right now is on Twitter as scientists just process their data and put up some early pretty images. Like check out this galaxy- holy crap!

I saw that image in passing, I scrolled past it because I thought it was a joke! That's REAL?!?!?!?

[Rommie]

Well I mean we don't see in infrared so you can choose whatever color you want...

[SciFiFisher]

I like the colors even when I know they are added in for dramatic effect.