Amy Mainzer (born January 2, 1974) is an American astronomer, specializing in astrophysical instrumentation and infrared astronomy. She is the Deputy Project Scientist for the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the Principal Investigator for the NEOWISE project to study minor planets and the proposed Near Earth Object Camera space telescope mission. She is the host of the educational live-action segments that air between episodes of Ready Jet Go! , and she is also the science consultant for the episodes.
Contributions[]
- Beep Has the Blues (story, with Craig Bartlett)
- The Plant From Bortron 7 (story, with Craig Bartlett)
Trivia[]
- As of Season 2, her segments are filmed using a green screen.
- She was only credited for the story in The Plant From Bortron 7 in later airings.
- Asteroid 234750 Amymainzer was named after her.
- She appears in several episodes of the History Channel series The Universe. She also appears in the documentary featurette "Stellar Cartography: On Earth" included on the Star Trek Generations home video release (March 2010). Mainzer is also in the 2016 documentary about the life of Leonard Nimoy and the effect of Spock on popular culture called "For the Love of Spock", which was directed by Leonard Nimoy's son Adam Nimoy
- She stated in an interview that her favorite character is Mindy, and one of her favorite episodes was the one that focused on black holes.
- Mainzer is shown playing a flugelhorn in the interstitial that plays after Potatoes on Mars prior to Bortron Leprechaun. In Astronaut Ellen Ochoa!, Mindy mentions having taken flugelhorn lessons.
- She appeared in a "Role Models" segment that airs during PBS Kids breaks.