I don’t know about you, and it’s not like I want to put my head in the sand (okay, I totally do, until this Arctic Blast is over and the crocuses come up, in April), but the world in the New Year already seems shaky, scary, violent, extreme; I want some good news, some happy thoughts. Thank goodness, there are some, and they’re science-y. Here are six:
Sometimes I forget all about the Hubble Space Telescope, which is a shame. Because the Hubble is amazing. And it practically lives in our back yard.
The Space Telescope Science Institute is, of course, located on the Homewood Campus of Johns Hopkins, so even though several dozen universities are involve in operating the Hubble, I feel like it’s a little more ours than theirs, you know?
I am into everything about this discovery of a 10 billion year-old supernova discovered by Johns Hopkins scientists using the Hubble Telescope — the oldest and farthest cosmic explosion ever sighted — except its name.
Sure, the Hubble Space Telescope is in 350 miles above the Earth, and what it’s looking at is some kind of billions of light years away, but the telescope is monitored seven blocks from my Charles Village apartment, so let’s call this a local story.
