One of the world's largest astronomy archives, containing a
treasure trove of information about myriad stars, planets, and
galaxies, has been named in honor of the United States Senator
from Maryland Barbara Mikulski. Called MAST, for the Barbara A.
Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, the huge database
contains astronomical observations from 16 NASA space astronomy
missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope. "In celebration
of Sen. Mikulski's career-long achievements, and particularly
this year, becoming the longest-serving woman in U.S.
Congressional history, we sought NASA's permission to establish
the Senator's permanent legacy to science by naming the optical
and ultraviolet data archive housed here at the Institute in her
honor," said Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope
Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md. STScI is the science
operations center for Hubble and its upcoming successor, the
James Webb Space Telescope. In addition, an exploding star that
the Hubble Space Telescope spo