Feb. 10, 2009

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown{at}nasa.gov

Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0880
jane.platt{at}jpl.nasa.gov

RELEASE: 09-029

NASA RECEIVES SHORTY TWITTER AWARD

WASHINGTON -- NASA's activities in social networking media will be
recognized Wednesday in New York, when the agency receives an award
for its presence on the popular Web site Twitter.

Known as the Shorty Award, it was created to honor the best producers
of short content on Twitter during 2008. Updates on NASA's Mars
Phoenix Lander mission received the most votes in the science
category from users of the site.

The Mars Phoenix Twitter delivered more than 600 updates during the
152 days the lander was operating in the north polar region of Mars.
By the end of the lander's mission in early November, more than
38,000 people were following its reports, called "tweets." The
account is still used to provide updates on the mission's science
results and has more than 41,000 followers.

"We created the account, known as Mars Phoenix, last May with the
goal
of providing the public with near real-time updates on the mission,"
said Veronica McGregor, manager of the news office at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and originator of the
updates. "The response was incredible. Very quickly it became a way
not only to deliver news of the mission, but to interact with the
public and respond to their questions about space exploration."

Twitter allows people to follow accounts of their choosing through
the
Web, or by having updates sent to their mobile phones. Users post
short updates that are limited to 140 characters or less. The Shorty
Awards were created by Sawhorse Media in New York and are supported
by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander ceased communications Nov. 2 after
successfully returning unprecedented science data to Earth. Launched
Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix safely touched down on Mars on May 25, 2008, at
a site farther north than where any previous spacecraft had landed.
Phoenix's soft landing on Mars was the first in 32 years. Cameras on
Phoenix sent more than 25,000 images back to Earth. Science
instruments returned a treasure trove of data that continue to be
analyzed.

To view NASA's Mars Phoenix Twitter site, visit:

http://twitter.com/marsphoenix

In addition to the Mars Phoenix site, NASA maintains another Twitter
feed that includes updates on other agency programs at:

http://twitter.com/nasa

For a list of NASA missions providing updates on Twitter, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate

For more information on the Mars Phoenix mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix

For more information about the Shorty Awards, and a complete listing
of award winners, visit:

http://shortyawards.com

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