THERE IS A ROCKET LAUNCH TODAY SENDING ASTRONAUTS TO THE @Space_Station AND IM SO EXCITED IM COUNTING DOWN THE MINUTES!!!!!!!!
COVERAGE IS BEGINNING ON NASA TV
omg NASA TV’s opening coverage started by flashing Sally Ride’s name across the screen and launched me into immediate tears
AHHH astronaut & puppy legend @Astro_Flow is on the panel discussing the launch!!!!
both astronauts launching to the ISS, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, are married to astronauts
Behnken’s wife, K. Megan McArthur, was the last person “hands on” with the Hubble Space Telescope
Hurley’s wife, Karen Nyberg, has spent 180 days in space
how insanely COOL IS THIS
“this is the last place on planet Earth they’re standing before launching to the International Space Station” oh my god.
omg love seeing @thephysicsgirl on NASA TV!! killin it Dianna ❤️
in 1 hour and 56 minutes, 2 humans are lifting off of planet Earth to float amongst the stars. #LaunchAmerica
i’m looking at supernova data and watching two humans prepare to fly to the cosmos— this feels right out of a sci-fi novel
as if me ranting on Twitter isn’t enough, you can follow along with my excitement via photos and videos on my IG and IG stories :) instagram.com/starstrickenSF
I HAVE SO MANY BUTTERFLIES I FEEL LIKE I’M GONNA EXPLODE
can you imagine knowing you’re going to leave planet Earth in 27 minutes
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Navigating a BRCA diagnosis & double mastectomy was scary, but @The_Breasties helped get me through it by supporting those impacted by breast or gynecological cancers.
They changed my life.
This Giving Tuesday, their goal is to raise $20k today.
today marks the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. this is my story.
my goal is to empower and educate, and to share that Knowledge is Power.
i’ve always known that cancer ran in my family.
my dad’s mom, my grandmother Grannell, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when I was a little girl. she fought over over a decade - and won - before getting diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
although ovarian cancer (dubbed the Silent Killer) is treatable, pancreatic cancer is an even trickier beast. she died 6 months after her diagnosis.
i’ve dreamt of going to space since i was little. despite the naysayers & fear of not being good enough, i’m elated to share that today, i’m taking a giant step towards that goal.
i’ve been selected for @NASA’s @HI_SEAS, a Mars Analog Astronaut Simulation on Mauna Loa, Hawai'i.
how it started vs how it’s going
located at 8,200 feet above sea level, the HI-SEAS habitat is where i’ll live for 2 weeks as though i were on Mars. with a crew of 6, we’ll go on spacewalks, experience a Martian “time delay” of 20 minutes for all comms, and conduct astronomical and geological research.
let's pretend that our own calendar--the one that runs from January through December--is representative of *the Universe*.
imagine that it's midnight on January 1.
all of a sudden, our Universe expands.
at the stroke of midnight, 12am, the Universe expands from *extreme* high densities and temperatures. and it expands rapidly - so rapidly that the timescale wouldn't make sense to write.
this is the Big Bang.
for the first 10^-41 seconds of January 1st -- that's 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000043-- the four fundamental forces rea unified as one.
electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, and gravity. all together as one.
lemme tell you about relativistic space fireballs.
yeah, you read that right.
space fireballs, or flashes that release as much energy in SECONDS as the Sun releases in its entire 10 billion yr life.
also known as: GAMMA RAY BURSTS.
some bursts are extremely short (less than a couple of seconds) and some are fairly long (several minutes). a few are even as long as a couple of hours.
what could possibly form such an energetic, bright, and powerful fireball careening through space?
we think that the short gamma ray bursts (<2sec) form from merging binary neutron stars or a black hole swallowing a neutron star. both neutron stars and black holes are the dead remnants of ~supernovae~!