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

Corn Niblets

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • January 12, 2026
I wrote this several years ago and have re-blogged it but the juncos are so adorable – little puffball corn niblets. And they are ubiquitous during New England winters. We all know I am not an ornithologist. I would liken myself to a very amateur birder. While I worked a great deal with my friend and mentor, Edith Andrews, over the years, particularly on her book, I still am TERRIBLE at shorebirds and warblers. Even harriers and hawks. I grew up watching birds – my parents are birders. My Dad had a primo seat at the bird venue in his study – close to the feeders and the hummingbird feeder right outside the shop keeper’s style window of his study. But (as I tend to do), I digress. What are corn niblets and birds doing in the same blog you wonder? Well, that’s what I think of when I see Dark-eyed Juncos. Their beaks remind me of a piece of a corn kernel – and thus the niblets term. Believe it or not, I had never really seen – or maybe noticed – a Junco until I was in my early 20s and my husband and I were living outside Washington, DC where he was an officer stationed with the US Coast Guard. We had a large second story deck and I was feeding the birds. It was November or December and all these little birds with white-greyish breasts and black backs with little beaks showed up. I called my Mom who said, “That’s’ a Junco!’ And probably also then thought, “Duh.” If you haven’t seen a Junco, they’re absolutely adorable and a harbinger of cold weather around these parts. Last year, I never seemed to glimpse one at all. We seem to have waves from year to year where we have a lot or they are few and far between. But in any case, I was rather excited to see one under my feeder the other day. I went back to look in my bird list and realized I never saw one in 2020 nor in 2021! Now, identification books state they have a pink-ish beak but I always see them more as a yellowy color – maybe it’s my eyes – but it’s really the size that reminds me of a kernel of corn! But take a look and let me know what you think. JNLF

PEACE

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • January 5, 2026
As Walt Whitman once wrote, “Peace is always beautiful.” Peace can mean many different things. I have used this Whitman quote above before – my Father loved Whitman. And when I quote Whitman, it makes me feel like my Father is here. Maria and her father, William, were close. In fact, even with a large family of twelve people, the Mitchells were all close. My family is close as well, though we have our moments as most, if not all, families do. As we bring to a close another difficult year in which the world and its people continue to struggle, take a moment to be thankful and to find and give peace. May you always find peace in yourself and peace with others. May our world become more peaceful and may we all learn that this small space we inhabit is shared and meant for everyone. In the echoes of one of my favorite Maria Mitchell quotes, your small step, your small gesture to another or towards helping something happen, can make a difference – more than you think. I’ll end with another quote – and a poem I have used the last few years – that is fitting and that also reminds me of another Whitman poem. JNLF In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells] Alfred, Lord Tennyson - 1809-1892  Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die. Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. Ring out the grief that saps the mind For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind. Ring out a slowly dying cause, And ancient forms of party strife; Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws. Ring out the want, the care, the sin, The faithless coldness of the times; Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes But ring the fuller minstrel in. Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good. Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold; Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace. Ring in the valiant man and free, The larger heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Keep Calm and Bird On: January 2026

January 1, 2026
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews
Show More