Day: November 26, 2025

NARRATOR It was Bulldog Day, 1957. Homecoming festivities at New Mexico’s Albuquerque High School were well underway. The morning’s parade, a vibrant display of green and white, had been a rousing success, even if Mrs. Hefferan’s students hadn’t won any prizes for their float. But any disappointment they may have had would soon be forgotten, though not because of the homecoming game. No. Many of Mrs. Hefferan’s students wouldn’t even attend. Not because they didn’t care for the sport. Certainly not. Because something far more significant than a football had just taken flight. It was Oct. 4, 1957, and…

A conversation with Jessie Dotson, Kepler’s project scientist, and Geert Barentsen, director of the mission’s guest observer office, talking about how NASA’s first planet-hunting mission has contributed so much to the field of astronomy. Transcript Host (Matthew Buffington):Welcome to NASA in Silicon Valley episode 83. Following last week’s conversation with the Kepler space telescope system engineer Charlie Sobeck, we’re continuing on the theme of all things Kepler. This week we’re checking in with the mission’s dynamic science duo: Jessie Dotson is Kepler’s project scientist and Geert Barentsen is director of the guest observer office. They’re here to tell us…

Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter is a mysterious dwarf planet called Ceres. Its surface is dark and muddy, but has hundreds of patches of bright material. The salt-covered dome and other bright features in Occator Crater are so reflective that they looked like flashlights in distant images. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft got a close look, and pointed scientists to the idea that liquid brine has come up from the interior of Ceres, forming the Occator dome and other bright features. Ceres’ crust also contains a significant amount of ice. Astrobiologist Britney Schmidt discusses the implications, as well as…