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By NASA
Explore Hubble Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts e-Books Online Activities Lithographs Fact Sheets Posters Hubble on the NASA App Glossary More 35th Anniversary Online Activities 2 min read
Hubble Captures a Cosmic Cloudscape
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away. ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
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The universe is a dusty place, as this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image featuring swirling clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula reveals. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Tarantula Nebula is the most productive star-forming region in the nearby universe, home to the most massive stars known.
The nebula’s colorful gas clouds hold wispy tendrils and dark clumps of dust. This dust is different from ordinary household dust, which may include of bits of soil, skin cells, hair, and even plastic. Cosmic dust is often comprised of carbon or of molecules called silicates, which contain silicon and oxygen. The data in this image was part of an observing program that aims to characterize the properties of cosmic dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other nearby galaxies.
Dust plays several important roles in the universe. Even though individual dust grains are incredibly tiny, far smaller than the width of a single human hair, dust grains in disks around young stars clump together to form larger grains and eventually planets. Dust also helps cool clouds of gas so that they can condense into new stars. Dust even plays a role in making new molecules in interstellar space, providing a venue for individual atoms to find each other and bond together in the vastness of space.
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Caldwell 103 / Tarantula Nebula / 30 Doradus
Hubble Studies the Tarantula Nebula’s Outskirts
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Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
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Last Updated Feb 13, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Hubble Space Telescope Absorption or Dark Nebulae Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Emission Nebulae Goddard Space Flight Center Nebulae Star-forming Nebulae The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
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By NASA
“I’m hopeful anyone, regardless of their scientific background, could read a Hubble post and understand the gist of it and be interested in it,” said Elizabeth Tammi, social media lead for the Hubble Space Telescope. “I also read our stories with the eye of the potential audience member: What are they going to care about? What is going to bring them into this story? What is going to make them want to read more?”Credits: Courtesy of Elizabeth Tammi Name: Elizabeth Tammi
Title: Hubble Space Telescope Social Media Lead
Formal Job Classification: Communications Specialist
Organization: Hubble Space Telescope Operations (Code 441)
What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
I am the social media lead for the Hubble Space Telescope mission at Goddard. In short, Hubble is an orbiting observatory that’s been in low-Earth orbit for more than 30 years. It’s one of NASA’s flagship missions, probably one of its most iconic missions. Hubble has shaped our understanding of how we imagine the universe — visually how we think about it.
I run Hubble’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr, along with various other multimedia and communications tasks. We’re a very close-knit team, so we collaborate a lot, both within our team, and with other missions across the agency as well.
I’m primarily focused on social media and figuring out how are we going to share our news. On any given day, I might also be working on a script, editing news releases, or working with other accounts on social media campaigns. It’s different every day, which I really like.
What is your educational background?
I went to Mercer University, which is in Macon, Georgia. I graduated in 2020 with a degree in journalism and creative writing. There, they have a great program called the Center for Collaborative Journalism, which allowed us to work in newsrooms for academic credit. That was really useful, especially in this field, getting that hands-on experience and getting published from my freshman year on. I was eventually able to intern at Goddard the summer before my senior year. I really don’t think that would have been possible if I hadn’t had the audio production experience that Mercer allowed me to get, along with just all aspects of journalism, media, and communications.
“Hubble is one of NASA’s flagship missions, probably one of its most iconic missions,” said Elizabeth Tammi, social media lead for the Hubble Space Telescope. “Hubble has shaped our understanding of how we imagine the universe — visually how we think about it.”Credits: Courtesy of Elizabeth Tammi How does your writing experience contribute to your role with Hubble?
I know how to write accessibly and in a straightforward manner. I’m hopeful anyone, regardless of their scientific background, could read a post and understand the gist of it and be interested in it. That’s the goal. I try to come up with interesting turns of phrase when I can. I also read our stories with the eye of the potential audience member: What are they going to care about? What is going to bring them into this story? What is going to make them want to read more?
Outside work, you’ve written and published books. What inspired you to decide to write?
There’s not a day I can remember where I wasn’t absolutely infatuated with books. I think my parents read to me long before I could even understand them. It was just always such a huge part of my life — and I loved, loved, loved reading. When I realized that actual people wrote books, then I knew I wanted to write. To be clear, I didn’t take real steps toward that until I was about 15, 16-ish years old, because I guess in my mind, I still had this idea that authors were more than human.
I’ve since had two novels published. Both are in the fantasy genre and earned complimentary reviews; my second novel even earned a Moonbeam Children’s Book Award.
“I know it can be intimidating, to think about NASA as a place to intern,” said Hubble Space Telescope social media lead Elizabeth Tammi. “If you have any interest in space, I think that’s the most important part: People who are passionate and interested in our space program.”Credits: Courtesy of Elizabeth Tammi What do you most enjoy about sharing the Hubble story?
I think my favorite part is reading the comments that we get from the public, just because everyone has been so supportive of the telescope. Social media can put on display the best and worst aspects of humanity. It’s very nice to see this supportive corner of the Internet.
So far, what I’ve really enjoyed was our “Deep Field Week” social media campaign, which was around the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Deep Field image . To the unaided eye, this was a seemingly empty patch of sky. Hubble revealed it has countless galaxies. It was a really staggering finding and definitely was a huge cultural shift in how we think about our universe.
Previously, you were a NASA intern from the Summer of 2019 to May 2020. How has that experience shaped your current role?
It was absolutely vital. I don’t think I would be here in this position without that internship experience. It was the summer before my senior year of college. I got to go up to Goddard for summer 2019 and I was working primarily as an audio production intern, though the internship afforded me the opportunity to contribute to the newsroom’s work overall.
I worked with Katie Atkinson, who I also went to college with, and we got to work on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. One of my primary tasks that summer was working on an oral history campaign tied to Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary . We encouraged people from all over to send in audio accounts of what they remember experiencing when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969. Or, if they didn’t remember seeing it as it happened, how did the landing affect them and their view of the world, or their career aspirations, or if they have family stories tied to Apollo.
If I could describe my NASA experience with a book title, it would be the term “Galaxy Brain.” It’s when you have a normal thought but then you think harder, and it gets bigger. From the idea of constantly feeling mind-blown by the work that’s going on around me to being part of it makes me feel, “Oh my gosh!” This “Galaxy Brain” imagery symbolizes the enormous magnitude of everything that is interesting and mysterious. It’s just something that’s constantly engaging.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
By Elissa Fielding
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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By NASA
“I’m always proud every time I see a new picture taken by Hubble,u0022 said Phathom Donald, a satellite systems engineer for the Hubble Space Telescope. u0022It feels like an accomplishment and an honor even to be part of a mission that brings those images to people on Earth.”u003cstrongu003eu003cemu003eCredits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Rob Andreoliu003c/emu003eu003c/strongu003e Name: Phathom Donald
Title: Mission Engineer
Formal Job Classification: Satellite Systems Engineer
Organization: Astrophysics Project Division, Hubble Space Telescope Operations Project, Code 441
What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
As a member of the flight operations team for the Hubble Space Telescope, I monitor and evaluate the performance of Hubble’s subsystems through its telemetry. I send commands to Hubble as needed for routine maintenance, maintaining communication with the spacecraft, and recovery from onboard anomalies. I also support ground system maintenance to ensure that operations run smoothly and uninterrupted.
On the flight software team, I build and run simulations to verify flight software changes before they’re installed onto Hubble. Just like how your laptop or your smartphone gets regular updates to add new features or to fix bugs, Hubble gets flight software updates for added capabilities and to address new issues.
Being a flight controller was a dream of mine, so being able to command a spacecraft has been really exciting. I also really enjoy coding, and it’s been interesting seeing how all these critical and complicated activities happen at the same time. I think the work I do outside of my flight controller role has helped me become a better flight controller, because I have a better idea of what’s happening behind the scenes — things feel a bit more intuitive to me.
How did you find your path to Goddard?
During undergrad, I was on a path to become a power systems engineer. But one day in my senior design class, our professor invited the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) project manager at the time to speak to our class about systems engineering and its applications to the mission. Within five minutes of this presentation, I was on the verge of tears. This presentation alone changed the course of my career because it reminded me that I love the stars and I love space. More importantly, it made me feel like a career at NASA was actually possible.
So, I emailed the speaker and asked him for advice, and he responded with excellent guidance and encouragement. I saved that email and essentially used it as a career guide. After graduating, I worked for a NASA contractor first as a quality engineer, then as a model-based systems engineer. While I was in that role, I pursued my master’s, and about a month after graduating, I saw the job posting for Hubble’s flight operations team at Goddard. After a year or so of settling in, I reached out to that same speaker and I let him know I took his advice, I made it to NASA, and that I couldn’t be more grateful for his help. He responded beautifully, saying that he was humbled to have played any role in me getting to where I wanted to be.
What first sparked your interest in space?
My dad used to take my brothers and me to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles all the time. I loved going to those shows in the planetarium and just feeling engrossed in what they were teaching. I’d always wanted to take an astronomy class, but I didn’t get the chance until my last year of undergrad. I’m so glad I did; it just reaffirmed that space is for me.
u0022In moments where Hubble’s mission is at risk, I’ll look at the situation and think, ‘Okay, what can we do to either fix or mitigate this problem?’u0022 said Phathom Donald, a satellite systems engineer for the Hubble Space Telescope. u0022I do what I can with care, I communicate clearly with those I’m working with, and I trust the abilities of my colleagues.”u003cstrongu003eu003cemu003eCredits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Rebecca Rothu003c/emu003eu003c/strongu003e What is your educational background?
I graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 2014 with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering. I also have a master’s in space systems engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Right now, I’m pursuing a graduate certificate in control systems from the University of Michigan at Dearborn to prepare for a role supporting Hubble’s pointing and control subsystems. After I’m done, I plan to pursue a graduate certificate in aerospace for that same reason; I want to pick up and hone skills in order to maximize my contributions to Hubble.
How do you keep a cool head when you have a mission-critical situation?
I think I’m generally a pretty calm person, but in moments where Hubble’s mission is at risk, I tend to focus on what is in my power to get done. So I’ll look at the situation and think, “OK, what can we do to either fix or mitigate this problem?” And I do what I can with care, I communicate clearly with those I’m working with, and I trust the abilities of my colleagues. I work with really brilliant, dedicated people who love what they do, so I know that they’re going to do what’s best for the mission.
What is your proudest accomplishment at Goddard?
To be honest, I’m always proud every time I see a new picture taken by Hubble, especially after we’ve recovered it from an anomaly. It feels like an accomplishment and an honor even to be part of a mission that brings those images to people on Earth.
Who are your science role models, and how have they shaped your career in science?
Katherine Johnson: she was an African American mathematician who was pivotal in the success of the early human spaceflight missions carried out by NASA. Her complex trajectory calculations got the first man into space and back unharmed. I also admire Dr. Sian Proctor: she was the first Black woman to pilot a spacecraft.
As a minority, it can be easy to feel like an outlier in the space industry. Seeing people like Katherine and Dr. Proctor succeed and excel in these fields adds a bit of comfort. They show me that these technically demanding roles are attainable.
How do you like to spend your time outside of work? What are your hobbies?
I spend a lot of time with my tiny dog, Chara. I named her after a yellow star in the Hunting Dogs constellation. Chara is Greek for “joy,” and to say she brings me joy would be an understatement.
I actually have a new obsession with snorkeling and freediving. I went snorkeling for the first time in early 2021 and it completely changed my life. Before snorkeling, I was terrified of water. After snorkeling, I wanted to be a fish. I just love the freedom that comes with the lack of equipment. I love the peace that I feel underwater.
What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.
“The stars are not too far.”
What is some advice you would give your 10-year-old self?
You are capable of more than you know, more than what people might try to make you believe. Do what makes you feel fulfilled and define your own success. Your passion is your strength.
By Hannah Richter
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
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Last Updated Feb 10, 2025 Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA astronaut Don Pettit aboard the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA) For the first time, NASA is hosting a live Twitch event from about 250 miles off the Earth aboard the International Space Station, bringing new audiences closer to space than ever before. Viewers will have the opportunity to hear from NASA astronauts live and ask questions about life in orbit.
The event will begin at 11:45 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Feb. 12, livestreamed on the agency’s official Twitch channel:
https://www.twitch.tv/nasa
“This Twitch event from space is the first of many,” said Brittany Brown, director, Office of Communications Digital and Technology Division, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We spoke with digital creators at TwitchCon about their desire for streams designed with their communities in mind, and we listened. In addition to our spacewalks, launches, and landings, we’ll host more Twitch-exclusive streams like this one. Twitch is one of the many digital platforms we use to reach new audiences and get them excited about all things space.”
Although NASA has streamed events to Twitch previously, this conversation will be the first NASA event from the International Space Station developed specifically for the agency’s Twitch platform.
During the event, viewers will hear from NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who is currently aboard the orbiting laboratory, and NASA astronaut Matt Dominick, who recently returned to Earth after the agency’s Crew-8 mission.
The NASA astronauts will discuss daily life aboard the space station and the research conducted in microgravity. Additionally, the event will highlight ways for Twitch users to engage with NASA, including citizen science projects and science, technology, engineering, and math programs designed to inspire the Artemis Generation.
NASA is committed to exploring new digital platforms to engage with new audiences. Last year, the agency introduced its own streaming platform, NASA+, and redesigned nasa.gov and science.nasa.gov websites, creating a new homebase for agency news, Artemis information, and more.
To keep up with the latest news from NASA and learn more about the agency, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
-end-
Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
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