March 26th show online

No, this isn't an April Fool's Joke, here is the March 26th show in mp3 format for your listening pleasure. On this show, I discussed:

• Calendar of upcoming events in the greater Poughkeepsie/New York City area, available here.
• Interview with Dr. Neil Gehrels of Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA), discussing studying Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) with Swift, the first satellite specifically designed to study these mysterious flashes of very high-energy photons.
• News: Congratulations to Katherine Bedkowski, Pargya Kakani, and Yvette Leung, winners of a Vail Scholastic Achievement Award given by the Custer Institute and Observatory for the Astronomy science projects they presented at this year's Long Island Science and Engineering Science Fair, to former particle physicist Dr. Bill Foster for being elected to the House of Representatives, to Dr. G. Wayne Clough for being appointed head of the Smithsonian Institute which runs the Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory - one of the largest Astronomical research centers in the world, and to Vanguard I - the first American satellite - which has been observed the Earth for 50 years as of March 17th; Cassini flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus on March 12th occurs with only a minor hitch; UK astronomers going to maintain some access to the Gemini telescopes; Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona now operational (link); sunshield for James Webb Space Telescope passes preliminary design review (related interview,link); NASA says Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer - an anti-matter detector intended to be attached to the International Space Station which has already been built - may be too expensive to launch; orientation of Saturn's rings relative to Earth causing them to disappear for a short period time.
• Interview with Dr. Neil Gehrels of Goddard Space Flight Center on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the Swift satellite, the first NASA satellite dedicated to studying these mysterious flashes of high-energy radiation at all wavelengths
• Gamma-Ray Bursts: Long duration GRB detected on March 19th whose optical emission was so bright it was seen with the naked eye even though it took place 7.5 billion light years (4x10^22 miles) away; short GRB - believed to be the result of two neutron stars merging, observed occuring when the universe was only 7 billion years old (half of the current 14 billion years), earlier than expected.

Hope you enjoy, and please email any questions, comments, or concerns you might have to me or leave them below. Thank you for listening!