Join us for the Astrotweeps 2014 End of the Year Planetary Science Wrap Up Today 11am EST/4pm GMT

Today (December 29th) we’re having a year end review of the top planetary science and solar system events and  discoveries of 2014 with some of our favorite planetary scientists and friends who tweeted this year. The broadcast starts live at 11am EST/4pm GMT. You can find the video stream below (or on youtube):

You can ask questions by tweeting at @astrotweeps (we’ll see if we have time to get to a few) or by using the q&a tool on google+. If you can’t watch live, you can come back later and use the youtube link above to check out the the recorded video.

PS. If you missed it, you can still check out the video from last week’s 2014 Astronomy Wrap Up

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Join us for the Astrotweeps 2014 End of the Year Astronomy Wrap Up Today 12pm EST/5pm GMT

Today (December 22nd) we’re having a year end review of the interesting and strange astronomy discoveries of 2014 with some familiar faces from this year’s astrotweeps astronomers. The broadcast starts live at 12pmEST/5pm GMT. You can find the video stream below (or on youtube):

You can ask questions by tweeting at @astrotweeps (we’ll see if we have time to get to a few) or by using the q&a tool on google+ . If you can’t watch live, you can come back later and use the youtube link above to check out the the recorded video.

PS. Don’t forget about our Planetary Science Year End Round Up  on December 29th.

Introducing Nathaniel Ross

This week we feature Nathaniel Ross, a sixth-year graduate student in Astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Nathaniel’s thesis research focuses on the growth of super-massive black holes in galaxies half way across the visible universe. He has developed the data analysis software for the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels (WISP) Survey, a large Hubble Space Telescope project involving roughly 20 scientists from around the globe. Throughout his grad school career, he has spent more than 40 nights at telescopes (Magellan in Chile, Keck in Hawaii, Kitt Peak in Arizona, Palomar and Lick Observatories in California). He is convinced that the number one all-time best observing snack is Trader Joe’s chocolate-covered espresso beans. In his spare time, Nathaniel is a volunteer with Astronomy Live!, the education and public outreach wing of the UCLA Astronomy department, a film buff, and an Ohio State Buckeyes fan. He has also recently become an amateur triathlete. You can follow him at @StarryNate on Twitter.

Mark your calendars! – Astrotweeps End of the Year Wrap Up Live Chats

Image Credit: Steve Harris (swh) from Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveharris/5255090489/

2014 is rapidly drawing to a close (how is it December already?!?) and with it the first year of astrotweeps. From Naill, Demitri, and myself we wish you and yours a Merry Northern Winter (and Southern Summer) Solstice and a Happy New Year.

To mark the end of the year and the start of a brand new year of astrotweeps, we’ve decided to organize a 2014 year end wrap up live chats on google+ hangouts on air with some of your favorite astronomer and planetary science astrotweeps tweeters  from this year. We’ll be having two live chats: one discussing the key results and discoveries in astronomy & astrophysics on December 22nd 12pm EST/5pm GMT and one on  December 29th 11am EST/4pm GMT  with the planetary science perspective on 2014.

Tune in and watch on December 22nd and 29th We’ll post the link to the live videos for the two live chats  here on the astrotweeps blog as well as on twitter.  If you’ve got a question for our awesome panelists post it in the blog comments and we’ll try and answer it during the broadcast.

Introducing Jayne Birkby

This week features Jayne Birkby, a NASA Carl Sagan postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA) at Harvard University. Jayne’s research focuses on determining the chemical make up of exoplanet atmospheres in order to understand how and where such planets are born and evolve. Ultimately, she aims to use her observing techniques in the future on extremely large telescopes to identify signs of life (biomarkers) on Earth-like planets elsewhere in the Milky Way.

Jayne grew up in England and studied at Durham University for her Masters in Physics and Astronomy. She then moved to the University of Cambridge where she undertook her PhD studying the smallest stars in our galaxy, the M-dwarfs, and looking for their companion exoplanets. Afterwards, Jayne headed over to Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands for her first postdoc to study exoplanet atmospheres. After three years surrounded by canals, bicycles, and stroopwafels, Jayne departed Leiden in June this year and followed in the path of the pilgrims over to Boston to begin as a fellow at the CfA. One of the favourite parts of Jayne’s work is when she goes to telescopes to collect data and gets to watch the sun set and rise over some breathtakingly beautiful and remote locations. She hopes one day we will do this on other planets too. You can find Jayne over at @jaynebirkby during the rest of the year.