GREENBELT, Md. – NASA has another day to interact with the public worldwide during Tweet-up events for the launch of the agency’s newest eye on the sun, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO. Launch is now scheduled for 10:23 EST, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.
Tweet-up events have been held for the past two days at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The SDO launch was rescheduled for Feb 11 because of bad weather. Independent Tweet-ups around the world, both within the classroom and outside, can socialize and connect. Participants can even join a virtual Tweet-up within Second Life – a 3D virtual world where users can socialize and connect with one another.
“Our social media event allows the public to interact with individuals, classrooms, and on-site participants with NASA personnel directing working the upcoming SDO launch,” says Aleya Van Doren, a formal education coordinator at Goddard. “Through the ‘SDO is GO’ Twitter events, we will be able to reach out to potentially millions of people and make a personal connection.”
“Space is closer than I dreamed of, and it all started with a tweet,” says Adam Workman of Greenwood Village, Colo. Workman was selected to be one of 15 Twitter correspondents at the tweet-up.
ThinkGeek, an online company that offers products targeted to technophiles and “geeks” of all varieties, is a participant.
“Geeks are, at their heart, explorers, and NASA is a shining example of the amazing work those explorers can do,” said ThinkGeek President and General Manager Caroline Offutt. “ThinkGeek is excited to be part of this tweet-up, and we look forward to being inspired by the space program for years to come,” she adds.
SDO will peer into the sun’s atmosphere and probe the sun’s inner workings. It is the first mission of NASA’s Living With a Star program, which seeks to reveal how solar activity is generated and to understand the causes of solar variability and its consequences.
“NASA’s SDO will provide a powerful new set of eyes, ears and magnetic sensors to better understand how the changing sun can disrupt our high-tech existence,” says Madhulika Guhathakurta, SDO Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
To follow SDO on Twitter, visit:
For more information about the SDO tweet-up, visit:
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/sdoisgo/
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Emilie Drobnes
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
301-286-3146
emilie.drobnes-1@nasa.gov
Don Savage
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
301-286-8982
donald.l.savage@nasa.gov