Writing for Science, Jeffrey Mervis features NASA’s 2017 astronaut candidates, which included three MIT affiliates. Mervis highlights how at MIT, Prof. Warren Hoburg, one of this year’s candidates, was focused on developing an, “unmanned, solar-powered airplane that could fly nonstop around the world.”
Alumna Jasmin Moghbeli speaks with NPR’s Emma Bowman about being selected for NASA astronaut training. Moghbeli, one of three trainees with MIT ties, explains that she hopes to inspire girls of color. “If they can see someone similar to them that they can relate to more, then it makes it all that much more possible…to imagine doing this.”
Los Angeles Times reporter Karen Kaplan writes that NASA’s newest class of astronaut trainees includes Prof. Warren Hoburg and MIT alumni Raja Chari and Jasmin Moghbeli. “These would-be astronauts were chosen from among more than 18,300 applicants,” notes Kaplan. “That means their odds of being selected were less than 1 in 1,500.”
AP reporter Marcia Dunn writes that NASA selected MIT Prof. Warren Hoburg and two MIT alumni - Raja Chari and Jasmin Moghbeli – to join their 2017 class of astronauts. After two years of training, the astronauts could be “riding commercial rockets to the International Space Station or flying beyond the moon in NASA's Orion spacecraft. Their ultimate destination could be Mars.”
In an article for The Boston Globe, Travis Anderson highlights how several of NASA’s new class of astronauts have MIT ties. Prof. Warren Hoburg and two MIT graduates - Raja Chari and Jasmin Moghbeli - were selected for NASA’s 2017 astronaut class from 18,300 applications, the largest pool ever, according to NASA.
Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear writes that in a recent video posted to Twitter, MIT graduate and NASA astronaut Jack Fischer demonstrated how to eat pudding in space. Annear writes that Fischer, who is currently aboard the International Space Station, has been, “spending some of his time on the space station connecting with people back on earth.”
Boston Globe reporter Steve Annear writes that MIT students will have an opportunity to chat with NASA astronaut Jack Fischer, an MIT alumnus who is currently aboard the International Space Station.
CBS News reporter William Harwood writes that MIT alumnus Jack Fisher, a NASA flight engineer, is on his way to the International Space Station for a planned 135-day mission. Harwood notes that Fisher is an Air Force colonel and former test pilot with a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT.
MIT researchers have observed a black hole devouring a star, reports Torah Kachur for CBC News. After looking at about a year’s worth of data, researchers found that the “star was getting pulled apart and literally shredded into a debris stream that spiraled around the center of this black hole,” writes Kachur.
Elizabeth Howell writes for Scientific American that a team of researchers, including scientists from MIT, have observed that when a black hole consumes a star there is a burst of electromagnetic activity. Howell explains that the “new research suggests that interactions among the debris could generate the optical and UV emission.”
MIT researchers have observed a black hole devouring a star almost 300 million light years away, writes Andy Rosen for The Boston Globe. “We are actually mapping out in real time what is happening as the star is getting ripped [apart] and it’s falling onto the black hole,” says postdoctoral fellow Dheeraj Pasham.
Brooks Hays writes for UPI about a new study showing that supermassive black holes consume stellar debris in bursts. "What we're seeing is, this stellar material is not just continuously being fed onto the black hole, but it's interacting with itself," explains Dheeraj Pasham, a researcher at MIT's Kavli Institute and co-author of the paper.
In this article and video, Prof. Leia Stirling speaks with Devin Coldewey of TechCrunch about her research aimed at helping astronauts avoid stumbles and falls in space. Stirling explained that she and her colleagues developed a haptic feedback system to “potentially help someone navigate their environment and avoid obstacles at the same time.”
Tiera Guinn, a senior at MIT, speaks with FOX 25 reporter Elizabeth Hopkins about her work at MIT and with NASA’s rocket launch program. “Since I was 11 years old, I've had the passion of designing airplanes and rockets," Guinn explains. Nowadays, being part of the team building and designing rockets “keeps me going each day."
Maia Weinstock, deputy editor of MIT News, speaks with Audie Cornish and Ari Shapiro of NPR’s All Things Considered about the LEGO set she designed that celebrates the history of women at NASA. Weinstock explains that she aimed to showcase “a diverse range of women who had different roles at NASA.”