Neil Gehrels, chief, Astroparticle Physics Laboratory, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, is principal investigator for the SWIFT gamma-ray burst MIDEX mission. The SWIFT Explorer is an astronomical satellite that is observing gamma-ray bursts, the birth cries of black holes. Come hear about new results and about the amazing properties of black holes.

Andrea K. Dupree, senior astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts has studied stars like the Sun with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and is past president of the American Astronomical Society. The IUE was the first experiment to explore the full range of ultraviolet radiation from the universe, all of which are inaccessible from the ground. IUE trail blazed international collaborations in space, developed new observing paradigms,...

Charles L. Bennett is the Alumni Centennial Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He does research in cosmology, the study of the large scale properties of the universe. He was among the leaders of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission and he led the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe space mission. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy (WMAP) Explorer space mission mapped the remnant radiation from the Big Bang across the entire sky. From the...

Solar physicist and former Spacelab astronaut Dr. Loren Acton will launch us into the topic with "Discovering the Connection: The Day the Earth Caught Fire." He will recount the events around Richard Carrington's (English Astronomer) 1859 discovery of the solar storm that 'shocked' the world. Acton will then carry the story of the sun-earth connection to the present, reviewing the importance of space missions like Skylab in the 1970s and YOHKOH at present, outlining the effects of sunspots on...