I’m a Craig Ferguson man, truth be told, but I have to give Jimmy Fallon major props for devoting major time to Milky J this week.
C’mon, you remember Milky J: he’s the Hubble Gotchu guy. He was on Fallon’s show again this week, but this time got some bad news: Hubble will be replaced with the bigger James Webb Space Telescope.
What ensued was simply made of win:
Ha! That was awesome! All those people in the video are actual NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center employees (or contractors; hard to tell). NASA can’t buy this kind of publicity, but here it is, handed to them for free. And I love it! It’s funny and cool, sarcastic yet has this terrific undertone of sincerity. And Holy Haleakala, the science is accurate*! I loved the part where the team shouts JWST specs at him.
And it doesn’t hurt that one of the pictures Milky J holds up at the beginning is of Supernova 1987A, which was the topic of my PhD research. Still, Hubble being replaced isn’t a bad thing; JWST will still return amazing images, and also be more sensitive than Hubble to boot. Hubble may gotchu, but JWST will hold you tight.
You can also read some cute behind the scenes notes on two blogs: Geeked on Goddard, and NASA Blueshift.
*OK, fine: Hubble wasn’t the first telescope to detect HD 209458b (not "dash b" as Milky J said). It was seen a while before the initial Hubble observations… and no telescope has actually directly pictured; it’s too close to its star. But spectra have been obtained, which is pretty cool.
August 6th, 2010 at 7:05 am
Yeah, but for any UV or blue/green optical? Webb aint gotchu. HUBBLE GOTCHU!
August 6th, 2010 at 7:10 am
People out our way at Goddard were giggling for days. My favorite moment in the vid: In the interview with the Webb chief astronomer, where Milky J points out that Hubble is silver. “People like silver.” Sublime!
August 6th, 2010 at 7:20 am
I can’t wait to get home to watch this!
August 6th, 2010 at 8:12 am
WANT a NY Yankees space suit. With bling.
August 6th, 2010 at 8:41 am
HUBBBLE GOT ME!
Nice videoclip – poignant, funny, good science.
I really hope at least the HST and JWST overlap in their working lives somewhat – I’d hate to see a situation where JWST doesn’t work and HST is already gone.
I wish they could save Hubble and hope it keeps going as long as possible.
That said, I also hope the James Webb Space Observatory turns out to be every bit as good as predicted and more and hope for the best for them too.
Just as long as they paint it silver natch!
August 6th, 2010 at 8:48 am
For a while there, I thought the exoplanet with the comet’s tail they showed on the poster at the beginning was going to be this one :
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/01/28/weather-sizzles-on-a-planet-that-kisses-its-star/
[HD 80606b the Icarus / Comet-orbit planet] instead. But then Spitzer gotchu that one.
August 6th, 2010 at 8:48 am
during the interview portion of the video Milky J asks:
“do we need to see that? is that important?”
lol
August 6th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Did they use actresses or were those just the two most attractive astronomers in NASA’s history . . .well of course after you Phil
August 6th, 2010 at 9:41 am
I’m a David Letterman fan myself.
(BTW On tonights show he wished Neil Armstrong a happy 80th birthday.
)
Agreed. Milky J rocks.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:10 am
“You people just don’t get it. If I met the Hubble telescope, I would try to ‘hit it’.”
Now THAT’S obsessed!
August 6th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Awesome! Props to Fallon. I’ve never been much of a Fallon guy, but I’ll watch more from here on out. Reward science coverage in pop culture! Every little bit helps.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:48 am
awesome. but the JWST will have us, too. fo’ rizzle.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:49 am
@TSFrost: When he said that, I was thinking, “Just like John Grunsfeld!” Only he actually did hit it.
August 6th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Bah. Stay off my lawn.
August 6th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
That was — seriously good. Not just a lot of science geek humor, but they made sure to include real facts and real feelings. (Admit it, we all feel a tiny bit of what Milky J’s expressing.) Thank you so much for sharing.
August 6th, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Wow, factiness presented entertainingly and it appears they spent some money on it too. Hard to believe this is American television. Thanks.
August 6th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
@Rhacodactylus
Those are Goddard scientists all right, not actresses.
August 6th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
That was cool. I actually work at the other end of the building from the Hubble model and from where he’s walking sadly down the ramp – I think now I might have seen them setting up some of this filming without realizing it. (They frequently do TV interviews in front of the Hubble model, so it’s not that big a deal.)
August 6th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
The original segment was a bit lame, but this one was good stuff, fo’ sho’.
August 6th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Now this is science outreach! Great stuff.
One thing this hints at is the prestige and public profile of the HST. The public perception of Hubble is strongly positive, and Hubble itself was clearly a science win after a rocky, near disastrous start.
We don’t know that the JWST will be as successful in either realm. Don’t get me wrong, JWST might be an out of the park home run. I certainly hope for the best.
August 6th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
“It’s like Sammy Hagar replacing David Lee Roth”…
Funny as all get out, but the JWST will hopefully gain a better reputation than Van Hagar.
August 6th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
No matter how good JWST will be, hubble was first. Lovely instrument, astigmatism and all. (We all forget that the mirror in that thing was just wrong, don’t we?)
My prediction is that the de-orbit rocket attachment device will instead be used for a robotic repair mission, when the time comes. Or the rocket will be used to move it to a parking orbit.
August 7th, 2010 at 2:48 am
Hubble still has one huge advantage over JWST: JWST won’t last 20 years. It is out of range of servicing missions, and some of the instruments depend on cryogenic cooling, which consumes irreplaceable liquid helium.
Can anyone provide some information on JWST’s expected longevity? (I hope they’ve put lots of gyros on it – these seem to fail frequently on long duration satellites.)
August 7th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Hahahaha, so good.
August 7th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Wow! Glad to see someone with Rap talent took on this science subject. This is one of the most creative ways I’ve seen to popularize science for a general audience.
Gary 7
August 8th, 2010 at 12:20 am
JWST has a 5 year requirement for the mission with a 10 year goal. The limiting factor will hopefully be the fuel for the boosters to keep it in its orbit and not the gaseous helium used in the cyrocooler for the mid-infrared instrument (MIRI).
August 8th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
There’s always going to be a newer, a bigger, a better… but you just can’t take away first. First is forever.
August 9th, 2010 at 6:52 am
Did Mike just say “nano-Jansky”?
August 9th, 2010 at 9:15 am
Yep, those are indeed real JWST project folks, not actresses!
Here’s another pic of them all with Milky J:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4857012099/
Also, we paid no money to have this happen. Our public affairs person, Lynn Chandler, contacted the show after the first few Hubble Gotchu segments and invited them to come visit our full-scale model in NYC for the World Science Fair, and then to come visit us at Goddard to shoot. They came on their own dime! It was a really fun day!
August 10th, 2010 at 6:49 am
The JWST is 6 degrees from Absolute Zero? (Just like the 6 degrees from Kevin Bacon?)
HA! Funny.
August 10th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Phil said: “…and not the gaseous helium used in the cyrocooler for the mid-infrared instrument (MIRI)”
MIRI is actively cooled by a electro-mechanical closed loop cryogenic pump.
July 7th, 2011 at 9:39 am
[...] or less — where is the system that will expand upon the wonders that Hubble revealed? Even Milky Jay knows that JWST is the [...]
July 7th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
[...] or less — where is the system that will expand upon the wonders that Hubble revealed? Even Milky Jay knows that JWST is the [...]