Fatal Flyby

science.nasa.gov/blogs/the-su... 🧪🔭

Hella

A picture of me standing in an elevator in front of a flyer with a picture of me

Having a great visit to the Cornell Dept of Astro and @carlsaganinstitute.bsky.social talking about #LFAST telescope and how it will probe exoplanet atmospheres, nearby starrs, and extragalactic transients!

It's a superpower

Hitler fulminating

New Downfall dropped

xcancel.com/i/status/203...

And an awesome soundtrack, too

#NASA #ArtemisII For those following the coverage on the NASA stream, here's a better look at the 9 possible landing zones for later Artemis Missions. www.nasa.gov/news-release...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteri...

Same, I feel guilty about not totally feeling out over this (yet)

Yup, and there's a bunch of other guidelines as well - a concrete existence proof that a formalized structure for such a thing is possible

I advocated for exoplanet naming as a privilege of the discoverer with a IAU official back in 2009 and was greeted with a mix of sneering & aghast indignation - "The IAU does not do such things!"

Ummm asteroids have entered the chat

(And then the IAU went and did it themselves and screwed it up)

Growing up, we had a cat named Monty

I suppose in the future I can just send in my notes: 📓📔📕

LOL good on Samantha

100 years ago today, Robert Goddard launched his first liquid-fueled rocket (nicknamed "Nell") from a snowy field outside Worcester, Massachusetts, and changed the history of exploration.

Esther Kisk Goddard, Robert's wife, documented the historic event. 🧪🔭

www.collectspace.com/news/news-03...

same

Another stupid-ass chapter in a stupid-ass story that began when the stupid-ass IAU had their stupid-ass vote. It's up there with the FIFA Peace Prize

This should be required reading for every American over the age of fifteen!

black background white text and white frame, around the edges are colorful things like galaxies, planets, leaves, and sea creatures

can’t believe it’s finally my turn to do this but:

COVER REVEAL!!

here is the long-awaited cover for CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF STARSHIPS by the incredibly talented Kamille Rodriguez

pre-order here: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cloudy-wit...

How did I miss this? This looks awesome

Because of that trailblazing work, we are now looking forward to advanced upgrades for those arrays, as well as a new generation of advanced interferometers, both on the ground and in space.

I would like to think that this achievement, and the many that followed with that facility, as well as the impressive accomplishments with contemporary facilities like VLTI, CHARA, and NPOI, has set the stage for even greater work on the bleeding edge of optics and astrophysics.

And a hearty competition, as well, with our colleagues on the European side in Garching and Paranal!

It was a heady time - we had a great team straddling the Pacific, between JPL and WMKO, working towards a common purpose on an audacious task, scaling up optical interferometry from "garage band" level efforts to an industrial scale.

A cake celebrating first fringes with the two Keck telescopes as one optical telescope array

Noting a pivotal anniversary: it was 25 years ago today that the first Keck-Keck fringes were achieved on the summit of Mauna Kea. This event followed the first test siderostat fringes for the facility on Feb 22nd, and itself was followed by first VLTI sid-sid fringes on March 16th.

I hear this picture

OMG yes

SOLD

(too bad I'm not on the selection committee this year)

Years from now when we have much better equipment and everything we find DOES look like the solar system, this plot will be shown off like that confirmation bias airplane damage plot