What do all scientists have in common?

No, it is not that they wear pocket protectors or

are geeks. It is that they all ask questions. Lots and lots of questions, since asking
questions about what you see is one way to figure out how things work. Here at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, there are lots of people working towards a better
understanding of the Universe around us. However, it is not always clear how particular
observations can shed light on how our Universe works. Have you ever wondered how
scientists work to understand the things in the skies around us? Have you ever
wondered what the rocket scientists at NASA DO at work all day? Or how they spend
their weekend?

You Be the Astrophysicist!

Many times, the best way to learn about something is to do it. We think the best way to
learn about what an astrophysicist does would be to spend a day (or two or three) in the
shoes of one. But since we don't have room for everyone who visits our web site to visit
our lab, we've tried to do the next best thing. In these web pages, you will be given a
real problem in astronomy which you solve by traveling through web pages, exploring
different options and learning many different things along the way.

The Cosmic Distance Scale

This feature will give an impression of how immense our Universe is by employing a
method used many times in "Power of 10" films - that is, starting with an image of the
Earth and then zooming out towards the furthest visible reaches of our Universe. This is
not, however, an exercise in "powers of 10" - on the contrary, our goal is to show you
astronomical distances without scientific notation. We instead focus on the large
number of zeros that are in astronomical distances when we measure them with a
familiar unit like the kilometer. The number of zeros increase with each zoom, though
not at a constant rate.