NASA Week Presented by the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association

Kelly Bernatzky • October 28, 2021

The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) has joined almost 500 sites across the country to celebrate the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA’s next great space observatory. To celebrate this scientific achievement, the MMA is hosting a NASA Week from November 1-6 and offering a range of public programs including free science kits, events with the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club, a pop-up Science Speaker Series lecture, and Open Nights at Loines Observatory.

 

“We are thrilled that the Maria Mitchell Association is an official host site for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launch community events,” said Dr. Regina Jorgenson, Director of Astronomy at the MMA. “We have partnered with the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club to help our community celebrate this amazing feat of science and engineering, and we are very excited to host a JWST expert to speak during our pop-up science speaker lecture.”

 

JWST is the largest and most complex space telescope ever built – the premier observatory of the next decade. This international mission, led by NASA in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies, will launch in December 2021.

 

The observatory will provide a new view of the cosmos and push the field of astronomy into a new era. The telescope will observe the universe in the infrared, peering inside dust clouds to study light from distant parts of the universe for the very first time – the first galaxies that formed about 13.5 billion years ago – and give us insight into how our universe formed. It will also explore distant worlds in other solar systems, as well as objects in our own solar system. The JWST will extend the scientific discoveries of other NASA missions like the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Please read below for the MMA’s full schedule of NASA Week events.

 

Nantucket Boys & Girls Club Collaboration:

 

On Tuesday, November 2, the MMA is hosting a special event from 1pm-2pm at the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club (NBGC). This program is open to all members of the NGBC and will be led by the MMA Education Coordinator, Camden Palm, and Astronomy Research Fellow, Celia Mulcahey. Participants will learn about the importance of this great space observatory and receive free science kits provided with support from ReMain Nantucket. November 2 is Election Day and there is no school for Nantucket Public Schools on this day.

 

On Thursday, November 4, the MMA is offering a FREE Open Night at Loines Observatory as part of Tween Night at The Club. The program is open to ten participants and sign-up is available through the NGBC.

 

Science Speaker Series Lecture:

 

The MMA is providing a pop-up Science Speaker Series Lecture with Dr. Stephanie LaMassa of the Space Telescope Science Institute on Wednesday, November 3, from 7pm-8pm. Her talk, “Unveiling the Mysteries of the Universe with James Webb Space Telescope” will be FREE for all participants and held via Zoom.

 

When the JWST launches later this year, it will provide an unprecedented view of the cosmos and our place in it. This talk will highlight how observing infrared light will reveal the hidden Universe to us, the challenges in designing and deploying the most complex observatory yet built, and some of the science highlights we expect to learn from the JWST within just its first year of operations.

 

Dr. Stephanie LaMassa is a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) working on the JWST mission. Dr. LaMassa received her bachelor’s degree in Astronomy and Physics from Boston University. She then worked for several years as a mission planner for the Chandra X-ray Observatory at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics before starting graduate school at The Johns Hopkins University. After receiving her PhD from JHU, she held a postdoctoral research position at Yale University, followed by a fellowship position at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. LaMassa joined STScI in 2017 and currently serves as the manager of the JWST NIRISS instrument branch.

 

Dr. LaMassa studies the growth and evolution of accreting supermassive black hole holes (i.e., active galactic nuclei) and the interplay between black hole fueling and star formation from a multi-wavelength perspective. Dr. LaMassa is also interested in understanding how highly variable active galactic nuclei provide insight into the feeding habits of black holes and their lifetimes.

 

To register for this lecture, please use the link below:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GDrUkdtxT2O5-utDlWqVxg

 

Open Nights:

               

The MMA is hosting two Open Night programs on Thursday, November 4  and Friday, November 5  from 7pm-8:30pm. Visitors to Open Nights will join the MMA’s professional astronomers for an impressive tour of Nantucket’s night sky. The MMA staff will lead constellation tours and guide visitors through different viewing stations outside the observatory domes.

 

Programs take place at 59 Milk Street Extension and are weather permitting. No reservations are required; tickets will be available at the door. Open Nights are $10 for Non-Members and FREE for Members. On Thursday, November 4, this program will be free to all participating members of the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club’s Tween Night with pre-registration (see above). For updates on weather cancellations, please call (774) 325-1081or visit www.mariamitchell.org/open-nights.

 

Everyday Science Kits:

 

On Saturday, November 6, the MMA is handing out NASA Everyday Science Kits during Open Hours at the Natural Science Museum from 10am-1pm. These kits are offered for FREE to all, thanks to the generosity of ReMain Nantucket. The NASA kit explores the life cycle of a star with a bracelet making activity.

 

To learn more about the Webb telescope, visit webb.nasa.gov. For information about other Webb community event locations, visit webb.nasa.gov/content/features/celebrateWebb.html.

 

The Maria Mitchell Association is a private non-profit organization. Founded in 1902, the MMA works to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages.

For Immediate Release

October 28, 2021

Contact: Kelly Bernatzky, Development Associate

kbernatzky@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

The Ancient Vine

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 27, 2025
This is what our landscaper for MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House this is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 19, 2025
May 27. {1857} There is this great difference between Niagara and other wonders of the world, that is you get no idea from descriptions or even from paintings. Of the Mammoth Cave you have a conception from what you are told, of the Natural Bridge you get really a truthful impression from a picture. But Cave and Bridge are in still life, Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying form of the water of the change of color; no description conveys to your mind the ceaseless roar. So too the ocean must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked upon it. Maria Mitchell would tour the Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge during her trip to the southern United States as Prudence Swift’s chaperone – I have written of these travels and Prudence before. Niagara Falls is a place she likely saw on her way to visit her younger sister Phebe Mitchell Kendall, who once lived with her husband in Pennsylvania. I was a bit surprised that she feels the way she does about the Cave and Bridge being well-represented by images but I do kind of se her point. But Niagara, the ocean, any moving body of water – she is right. You don’t fully comprehend it until you hear it, touch and taste it, see its colors, and feel it splash, sprinkle, or mist across your face. Niagara certainly mists across your face – sort of like a breezy day at the beach and the salt mist that slowly builds across your face and coats the beach grass so that it shimmers in the sunlight. JNLF

Lily of the Valley

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 12, 2025
I have been watching it. Waiting. Today, I was rewarded with the scent as they have now started to open. From late fall, all through the winter and early spring, there is a very large patch of dirt with traces of roots and purple-like portions of some sort of plant. Then, they slowly start to send their shoots forth – up from that dusty pile of dirt come little greenish pips that become the leaves. Then, you start to see the stems tightened against the leaves and then lovely chartreuse buds are visible that then turn to white and slowly open from top to bottom. As soon as they star to open, I wait. Knowing that one morning I will walk by soon and then I will get a delicious waft of Lily of the Valley. I have written about this patch at the Mitchell House before. I have always been fascinated by the fact that these grow in full sun – they have no shade whatsoever. And this patch is old. I’m not sure how old – I do not think late nineteenth century but possibly – or maybe very early twentieth century. We have one or two images in the collection from the early 1900s but one does not show the ground, and the other not so much either. I also think this is one of the earliest flowering patches of Lily of the Valley on island – let me know if you’ve seen others this early. And in FULL sun to boot! But in any case, today was the day – May 5, 2025 – that I got the first waft. Saturday when I was here, they were not ready yet. But now, they are! And when I smell it, I know why it was my mother-in-law’s favorite flower. JNLF
Show More