Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) Superintendent Brian McDonald, Ed.D. has named Lori Touloumian as the principal of Eliot Arts Magnet Middle School, pending board approval. She has served as the school’s interim principal since January. The announcement was made during the school’s grand re-opening celebration and ribbon-cutting ceremony for its newly-refurbished auditorium and the naming o... More »
Former Vice President Kamala Harris used her first major televised appearance since leaving office — accepting the Chairman’s Award during the 56th NAACP Image Awards — to urge vigilance as the man who ended her bid for president in November continues revamping the U.S. government. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” Harris told the audience during Saturday’s ceremony at the Pasadena Civi... More »
Artist’s concept of Kepler in the distant solar system. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA is marking two milestones in the search for planets like Earth; the successful completion of the Kepler Space Telescope’s three-and-a-half-year prime mission and the beginning of an extended mission that could last as long as four years. Scientists have used Kepler data to identify more than 2,300 planet ... More »
A Neptune-size planet with a clear atmosphere is shown crossing in front of its star in this artist’s depiction. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Astronomers using data from three of NASA’s space telescopes — Hubble, Spitzer and Kepler — have discovered clear skies and steamy water vapor on a gaseous planet outside our solar system. The planet is about the size of Neptune, making it the smallest pla... More »
NASA’s Deep Space Network marks its 60th year on Dec. 24. In continuous operations since 1963, the DSN is what makes it possible for NASA to communicate with spacecraft at or beyond the Moon. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory here in Pasadena, the DSN allows missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from over over millions of miles away. The dazzling galactic imag... More »
More than 5,000 exoplanets, or planets that orbit stars beyond our sun, have been spotted over the last 30 years, and discoveries from space and ground-based telescopes continue to roll in. The planets come in many sizes and compositions and include everything from molten lava worlds to gas giant planets larger than Jupiter. However, the quest for small planets similar to Earth—those most promisin... More »
A planet and a star are having a tumultuous romance that can be detected from 370 light-years away. JPL’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected unusual pulsations in the outer shell of a star called HAT-P-2. Scientists’ best guess is that a closely orbiting planet, called HAT-P-2b, causes these vibrations each time it gets close to the star in its orbit. “Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we have d... More »
Eliot Arts Magnet and Washington STEAM Magnet Academy in the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) are receiving 74 new musical instruments thanks to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. Eliot and Washington were targeted for the instrument donation because of their strong music programs and leadership, striking an important chord for both schools. “This wonderful award will not only fulfill the h... More »
JPL’s Kepler mission Monday announced the discovery of 461 new planet candidates. Four of the potential new planets are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their sun’s “habitable zone,†the region in the planetary system where liquid water might exist on the surface of a planet. Since the last Kepler catalog was released in February 2012, the number of candidates discovered in t... More »
The U.S. Department of Education announced today it awarded the Pasadena Unified School District a $3.1 million grant to fund magnet programs at Eliot Middle School, Washington STEAM Magnet Academy, Washington Accelerated Elementary School and Jackson Elementary School. The grant was made as part of an $89.8 million federal investment nationwide in Magnet School Assistance Program (MSAP) grants to... More »
