NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. invites reporters to participate in a special media day that will highlight NASA's upcoming Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission. GLAST Media Day will be held on Wed., Sept. 19, 2007 from 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT.

GLAST, NASA's new gamma-ray observatory, will open a wide new window on the universe. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light, and the gamma-ray sky is spectacularly different from what we perceive with our own eyes. With a huge leap in all key capabilities, GLAST data will enable scientists to answer persistent questions across a broad range of topics, including supermassive black hole systems, pulsars, the origin of cosmic rays, and searches for signals of new physics.

Media Day will provide reporters with an introduction on the mission and high-quality videos. Also included will be a Science Writer's Workshop, highlighting the GLAST high-energy mission, and basics in the extreme events GLAST will study. Reporters will learn about gamma-ray bursts, blazars, quasars, black holes, neutron stars and probe some of science’s deepest questions.

Following will be a look at the instruments and a status on the mission, followed by a question-and-answer session with GLAST scientists. The day will conclude with a 20 minute video presentation of NASA's Science on a Sphere highlighting NASA Earth and space science. Reporters will be given the option to obtain lunch at the Building 1 cafeteria, and can then take an optional tour of Goddard at 1 p.m. EDT.

Reporters interested in attending should contact Robert Naeye at 301-286-4453, or at rnaeye@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov to reserve a space and provide names for security badges. Reporters should meet at the Goddard Visitor's Center, located off Greenbelt Road (State Route 193) and ICESat Road at 9:00 a.m. EDT. A shuttle will take reporters to the site of the event.

The GLAST Media Day takes place the day after the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts a Science Writers Workshop on dark energy. STScI is located in Baltimore, Md., less than an hour’s drive from Goddard. The events are running on consecutive days so reporters coming from distant areas can attend two workshops on just one trip. Journalists can register to attend the Sept. 18 STScI workshop by contacting Ray Villard (villard@stsci.edu, 410-338-4514) or Cheryl Gundy (gundy@stsci.edu, 410-338-4707) in the STScI News Office.

NASA's GLAST mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.

For more information about the GLAST mission, please visit: http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov

For information about Science on a Sphere, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/visitor/exhibits/sphere.html

Rob Gutro
Goddard Space Flight Center
301-286-4044

Lynn Cominsky
Sonoma State University
707-664-2655