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Category: Astronomy/Mathematics

Later construction of Charles Babbage's difference engine.

The Enchantress of Number

Posted by: Nate Smith

This blog was written in preparation for Ada Lovelace Day, which occurs every year on the second Tuesday of October and celebrates women in STEM. Augusta Ada Byron, daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and intellectual Lady Byron (whom Byron once named the “Princess of Parallelograms”), was born in 1815.  Shortly after Ada’s birth, …

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Peter Parley Explains the Moon to Children, Part 1

Posted by: Ellen Terrell

Today’s guest post is by Jacqueline Coleburn and Anthony Mullan. Jackie is a rare book cataloger at the Library of Congress and is cataloging the Library’s rare children’s books.  Peter Parley books are a particular interest of hers. These books, which were very popular in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s, offer insight into the evolution …

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The Parker Solar Probe, Mission to “Touch the Sun”: December 6 NASA Lecture with Dr. Alex Young

Posted by: Angel Vu

This post was authored by Stephanie Marcus, Science Reference Librarian in the Science, Technology, and Business Division. One of NASA’s most exciting missions, the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) launched from Cape Canaveral on August 12, 2018. The mission’s findings will help researchers improve forecasts of space weather events, which have the potential to damage satellites, …

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The ICESat Man Cometh: Lecture November 8 with NASA’s Tom Neumann

Posted by: Angel Vu

This post was authored by Stephanie Marcus, Science Reference Librarian in the Science, Technology, and Business Division. On November 8 the Library will welcome cryospheric scientist Tom Neumann, who will speak on “GRACE-FO and ICESat-2:  NASA’s Leadership in Monitoring the Polar Regions from Space.”  Dr. Neumann is deputy project scientist on ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and …

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NASA Astrobiologist Melissa Trainer to Speak at the Library October 11 on Titan: An Exotic Ocean World Waiting to be Explored

Posted by: Angel Vu

This post was authored by Stephanie Marcus, Science Reference Librarian in the Science, Technology, and Business Division. Before the twenty years of the Cassini-Huygens mission, little was known about Saturn’s largest moon Titan, except that it was Mercury-sized and its surface was hidden beneath a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere. The Cassini mission mapped Titan’s surface, studied …

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Shadow Science: Using Eclipses to Shed New Light on Heavenly Bodies, September 12 Lecture with NASA’s Chief Scientist, Dr. James L. Green

Posted by: Angel Vu

This post was authored by Stephanie Marcus, Science Reference Librarian in the Science, Technology, and Business Division. People are still talking about the total solar eclipse of last August, and many of us are already excited about the next one on April 8, 2024.  That will be the only total solar eclipse in the 21st …

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Binge Watching Science Webcasts! Celebrating Twelve Years of the NASA Goddard Lecture Series at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Angel Vu

This post was authored by Stephanie Marcus, Science Reference & Research Specialist, in the Science, Technology, and Business Division of the Library of Congress. She is also author of the blog posts “Kebabs, Kabobs, Shish Kebabs, Shashlyk, and: Chislic,” “The Potato Transformed,” and “Susan Fenimore Cooper: The First American Woman to Publish Nature Writing.” The Science, …

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Lecture with NASA’s Dr. Sarah Jones, June 7: “The Upper Atmosphere: Where Space Weather Meets Earth Weather”

Posted by: Angel Vu

This post was authored by Stephanie Marcus, Science Reference Librarian in the Science, Technology, and Business Division. The dance between the ionosphere and the thermosphere is complicated!  At the boundary between Earth and space, charged particles and fields co-exist with Earth’s neutral atmosphere and cause a continual tug of war between the neutral and ionized …