Topic: Pamela Gay
It’s Time to Give Up on Supersymmetry

It’s Time to Give Up on Supersymmetry

by | Apr 9, 2025 |

Since I was old enough to read about particle physics, I’ve been reading about how one possible set of solutions to explain why we have the particles we have in our universe would require the existence of a massive zoo of particles that that bring the population of integer spin bosons and ½ integer spin fermions into symmetry. Quarks would be paired with squarks, neutrinos with sneutrinos, gluons with gluinos, w bosons with winos, and b bosons with binos. It is all a bit ridiculous. And for as long as I’ve been old enough to be reading about particle physics, folks have been predicting that...

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Calculating Pluto’s Oceans

Calculating Pluto’s Oceans

by | Jun 20, 2024 |

While amazing data is the start of amazing research, it takes a lot of calculations and models to truly understand what the data mean.  Nine years after the New Horizons mission flew past Pluto and discovered it has mountains of ice, and a strangely cracked landscape,...

Lucy’s Discovered Dinkinesh Throws Rocks

Lucy’s Discovered Dinkinesh Throws Rocks

by | Jun 20, 2024 |

We often find ourselves saying that science moves at that rate of technology. With new telescopes and spacecraft we can get new views on the universe. And some of them are weirdly unexpected. Back in November 2023, the Lucy mission flew past the asteroid Dinkinesh on...

Euclid Releases First Science Images

Euclid Releases First Science Images

by | Jun 18, 2024 |

While the 33 year old Hubble struggles, the not yet 1 year old Euclid space telescope has released its first science images. Euclid is a 1.2 m telescope with a wide-angle camera that is designed to survey galaxy shapes and study dark matter and dark energy. It is...

Hubble Down to One Gyro

Hubble Down to One Gyro

by | Jun 17, 2024 | ,

In a June 4 telecon with the press, NASA shared that due to recent issues, they have made the decision to operate HST in single gyro mode. This isn’t expected to have any impact on the quality of individual science images, however Hubble will need significantly more...

Robotic arms may rescue clumsy astronauts

Robotic arms may rescue clumsy astronauts

by | Jun 7, 2024 |

I have a delightfully weird tech story related to future lunar exploration. Research has shown that astronauts working on the moon are most likely to fall over when using tools, and once they fall over, getting up while wearing a space suit that restricts their motion...

Closer Look: The cost of the climate of academia

Closer Look: The cost of the climate of academia

by | Jun 6, 2024 |

We are recording this episode about a week in advance of our normal recording date. This is because our producer Ally Pelphrey and I will be at the Balticon science fiction and fantasy convention over Memorial Day weekend and I’m then flying to Orlando where I’ll be...

Hubble Resolves star formation

Hubble Resolves star formation

by | Jun 4, 2024 |

Image credit: NASA / ESA One of the things I personally enjoy most about working in astronomy is the way yesterday’s empty star fields and faint smudges resolve into spectacular vistas and amazing nebulae as we build better telescopes and find the time to point them...