Ira Thorpe

WaPo burying the lede here on their otherwise informative analysis of the federal workforce. If Trump succeeds in making a 25% cut to the federal workforce, that makes less than a 1% cut to federal spending. Why? Because most federal spending is in grants or contracts going to people or companies.

This is for any other Xennials out there: I always thought the mid-life crisis was supposed to be a personal thing, not a national or global thing. Was I wrong? 🤔

The time when somehow my face ended up on the cover of a video that was linked off The NY Times website

Finally deleted my dormant X account. Now the right wing trolls are in charge of my real life so I don’t need to experience it online.

Fully concur with @emily.space. @esa.int ‘s Gaia mission has been transformative & a triumph for #openscience. Kudos & gratitude to my colleagues at the agency and to the whole Gaia data consortium for stellar work 💫✨🔭

Horrified at the news out of LA and the devastation in Altadena in particular. I always stayed there during my many visits to JPL and enjoyed running through the hilly streets and sampling many of the great shops and eateries. Keeping my JPL colleagues in my thoughts.

Happy 113th birthday to #FairNewMexico, my beloved home state.

Photo is one I took of chimney rock above Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu with Cerro Pedernal in the background

If you can’t handle the commitment of an M-dwarf, don’t even think about adopting a proton

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume?

Astronomer: Actually we’re not sure if it is a real gap in my resume or whether we just haven’t yet discovered what I did during that time. We’re going to need a bigger telescope to find out. 🔭

Came here to say exactly this. Actually the Sun fits inside LISA!

Lastly, while cosmic rays are associated with AGNs, I am not aware of a specific model of cosmic ray bursts generated by MBH mergers. Like potential EM counterparts, CR counterparts could have time offsets due to both emission and propagation. Moreover, they will not have a waveform match the GW

A particle interacting with the laser beam between the spacecraft will look like an optical scattering event, which are already relatively common due to interplanetary particles and included in our error budget. A cosmic ray can of course effect our electronics, but again we plan for that.

Always good to be open to possibilities and be aware of our assumptions. In the case of cosmic rays producing signals in the LISA interferometer, I don’t think it is likely to be an issue.

Impressive results from MeerKAT PTA with just 4.5yrs of data!

Nine years ago today: ESA launches LISA Pathfinder, a mission to demonstrate key technology for LISA. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work this mission through operations and analysis. A great spacecraft and a great team put us in position to make LISA happen.

Hi, I’m a gravitational wave astronomer.

My greatest hits include “opening a new window on the universe”, “Einstein was right”, and the Christmas multimessenger song “do you see what I hear?”

I'm a scientist working on the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), the space-based gravitational wave observatory under development by ESA and NASA.

yes

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

For any US-based #LISA researchers who may be out there, NASA is running another round of the LISA Preparatory Science program to build capability to leverage LISA science. NoIs are due Jan 17th and we've posted a list of "science gaps" to help inspire proposals. nspires.nasaprs.com/external/sol...

The UV discharge system is one of the components that NASA is providing to the ESA-led mission. It is being developed through a partnership with the University of Florida.

This non-contact charge control technology was demonstrated on the NASA GP-B mission and further refined on ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission. LISA will use the same basic principle, but with UV light source based on LEDs, which are smaller, lower power, and more reliable than the Hg lamps used before.

We want to keep the test masses and the surrounding spacecraft at the same electric potential so that we don't have any electrostatic forces disturbing our test masses. We do this by shining UV light on the test mass (or the housing) which strips off electrons using the photoelectric effect.

Good question. The main effect that cosmic rays have on LISA is charging of the test masses. Like you say, cosmic rays will interact with the spacecraft and produce particle showers, some of which will hit the test masses. They are not physically connected to the spacecraft, so they will charge up.

I have a long flight coming up today and I’m bored. Let’s do this.

What’s a question about gravitational waves and/or black holes that you always wanted to ask? 🔭

Quick trip to Ocean City, MD to visit family for Thanksgiving. Enjoyed a peaceful day at Assateague Island National seashore which was good for the soul. My crazy kids even went swimming in the ocean despite the cold temps.

They are small by NASA standards (only about 30cm across), but still very challenging. And we need to deliver 6 of them to ESA. Fun fact: the shipping container we used for our telescope was designed and used to ship JWST's mirror segments. Our entire telescope fits inside!

The telescopes have to be extremely stable so that their own motion doesn't overwhelm the tiny GW signal. We make them out of glass and construct them so they act like a single piece.

NASA Reveals Prototype Telescope for Gravitational Wave Observatory - NASA Science NASA has revealed the first look at a full-scale prototype for six telescopes that will enable, in the next decade, the space-based detection of gravitational waves — ripples in space-time caused by m...

Some semi-recent progress on our LISA work at NASA Goddard. We took delivery of a prototype telescope for LISA back in May. This telescope isn't used to take pictures, it's used to transmit laser beams across the 2.5 million kilometer LISA constellation.

science.nasa.gov/missions/lis...

The Invisible World of Gravitational Waves - NASA Information about the universe is all around us. But there’s more than meets the eye! Gravitational waves are the invisible ripples in spacetime caused by supermassive interstellar activity. Join astr...

One of the best things about doing science at NASA is the opportunity to work with science communicators who are absolute pros and help you tell your story.

www.nasa.gov/podcasts/cur...