TED Fellow and astronomer Erika Hamden leads the team building FIREBall, a telescope that hangs from a giant balloon at the very edge of space and looks for clues about how stars are created. She takes us inside the roller-coaster, decade-long journey to get the telescope from an idea into orbit -- and shows how failure is inevitable when you're...

What makes hydrogen so intriguing? It’s the magic ingredient in our universe. Chasing hydrogen clouds that flow between galaxies and developing more advanced telescopes to observe them can better reveal how the universe works. 2019 TED Fellow Erika Hamden, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. As an ast...