New crater just dropped. Wait. Large meteor just dropped. Then the crater.

Another stunner from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Hehe, oh yes! ☄️

A view of the Natural History Museum, London, particularly its old Waterhouse building. The sun is setting in the distance, through the branches of large trees in the garden. Smaller trees are scattered in the foreground, with the sky turning a murky orange at dusk.

Oh but the light was so lovely leaving work today.

UK undergrads - UK Space Agency Internships Programme is running this summer. Is paid too (£5k for 8 weeks).

web-eur.cvent.com/event/2a6caf...

An oblique view of a glaciated landscape on Mars. A lobate valley glacier extends towards the viewer from a small valley, and terminates in a lobe. Flow-related structures are visible on the surface.

5 days left to apply for a postdoc job with me, working on Martian glaciation!

Advert: tinyurl.com/6rzzk5d4

Relevant for glaciologists, geomorphologists, ice flow modellers, GIS or deep learning folks.

Closes 19th Jan. Queries via email.

📸HiRISE / @theseaning.bsky.social

An outside view of the Waterhouse building of Natural History Museum, London, with blue sky and a few clouds. A bronze cast of a diplodocus dinosaur is in the foreground.

A colourful image of impact crater densities on part of the Moon. Red and green rays emanate from the bottom left, the result of millions of secondary impact craters.

We have an STFC-funded PhD project at the @nhm-london.bsky.social. Work with me, @joemcneil.bsky.social, @katie-h-joy.bsky.social, and Gareth Collins, and share in the fun of secondary impact craters and landing sites!
tinyurl.com/nez8dzsy

Photo of St Salvator's Quad at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Overlaid is the text: "BPSC 2026 St Andrews 9-11th June 2026".

Our website for the British Planetary Society Conference 2026 is now live!

📅 9-11 June, 2026
🎯 St Andrews, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Our website contains details on how to get to St Andrews and the conference accommodation. Registration details will be added soon.

bpsc2026.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk

Looking to start a PhD in Physics & Astronomy in 2026? The team @physicsuol.bsky.social have announced their STFC-funded projects on offer next year, spanning astrophysics, planetary science, and space instrumentation. Deadline: Jan 18th, contact us to learn more!

le.ac.uk/study/resear...

Happy Halloween nerds 🎃

Photo of a plastic case containing small samples of a few small grey rocks, which have linear-like structures. An old sample label reads “Fuglurite (lightning tube). Maldonado, Uruguay. Collected by Charles Darwin and described by him in ‘A Naturalist’s Voyage’”.

Photo of a grey rock with some dark, almost black features, which are the remains of a now fossilised plant leaf.

I’ve worked at @nhm-london.bsky.social for a while now, and yet still have my mind blown on a regular basis. Today, 2 rocks from the collection:
Fulgurite (created by a lightning strike) collected by Charles Darwin.
Fossil leaf collected by Robert Falcon Scott (on the Terra Nova expedition).

East Cheshire, UK.

Lovely light on the half-term-drag-the-kids-outside walk.

@chrislintott.bsky.social Got it!

Apollo Moon sample opened after 50 years contains evidence of extraterrestrial landslide | Natural History Museum Moon rock collected on the last Apollo mission is revealing more about one of the Moon’s most unusual structures, the Light Mantle.

The Apollo mission's latest discovery has been made - more than 50 years after it ended!

A recently opened sample is revealing more about one of the Moon’s most unusual structures - the Light Mantle.

Discover what's been uncovered 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

The atmosphere of Mars is too thin to effectively shield it from small meteors hitting the surface.

Here, a new, small (10 m) impact crater formed some time between 2010 and 2019.

Although the crater is small, the effects are widespread, with the seismic energy triggering lots of dust falls!

Never won a raffle in my life, until now! Signed by Harry Brook. Just wish his century hadn’t been in vain. #ENGIND

New dust devil tracks at the Spirit landing site in Gusev crater, Mars.

CTX images, taken just 65 days apart at the end of 2006 / beginning of 2007.

Western Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Western University, in vibrant London, Ontario, delivers an academic and student experience second to none.

To anyone looking for a #postdoc at #LPSC2025 my university has just announced a Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. The program “incorporates the principles of equity, diversity, and
inclusion”.

Reach out if you’re interested.

uwo.ca/research/fun...

Geospatial Analyst:South Kensington

Come and join us in @nhm-london.bsky.social's Biodiversity Futures Lab! We're looking for a geospatial analyst to join the #PredictsProject team for 12 months (with possibility to extend) to help us further develop the Biodiversity Intactness Index. #job deadline 3 Mar jobs.nhm.ac.uk/internal/Job...

Many years ago, I got the train to Edinburgh, and spent the journey reading a Culture novel. When I got off, Iain Banks was right there on the platform as I opened the door.

He was meeting someone (else) from the train. I was too shellshocked/awkward to do anything but stare dumbfounded.

An image of the surface of Mars, where a landslide deposit runs top to bottom. Streaks of colours (blues, cyans) stretch through the landslide.

Do other people have a favourite landslide?

If not, consider adding this one on Mars. The colour from the CaSSIS instrument is just amazing.

CREDIT: ESA/TGO/CaSSIS/Peter Grindrod

This is what a dust storm on Mars looks like.

As seen by the Curiosity rover in 2018. Images taken over nearly a month, with roughly the same view.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Peter Grindrod

That would be @joemcneil.bsky.social 😀

Mysterious Martian mounds formed by ancient water Over 15,000 mounds are scattered across Mars’ lowlands – but until recently, no one knew how they got there.

Interested in some #Mars news this Monday?

The origins of more than 15,000 mysterious mounds on the red planet have been revealed, having been carved out of the surface by water billions of years ago.

Find out what they reveal about the red planet 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

An ochre toned mosaic capturing a Martian landscape. A depleted area with slightly darker colors at center corresponds to an impact crater. Credits images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

A 33-images mosaic acquired two days ago by Curiosity, capturing an impact crater named “Rustic Canyon”

Check out this post by @emmaharris.bsky.social describing the science program and operations of the rover on that day: science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-44...

#Mars Jan. 16, 2025 (Sol 4425) 🧪🔭

Gah! Thank you, yes, you're right, that's the paper.

Here's what plate tectonic movement looks like on Europa.

Part of the Northern Falga region, centred ~50N.

Animation, incredible work and data are all by Geoffrey Collins and co-authors (open access)
doi.org/10.1029/2022...

Fantastic news! And so well deserved!

Giulia is an amazing scientist and the best colleague.

It's a commonly-used phrase for an image that is real 'colour', but isn't as the human eye would see it.

In this case, RGB colours correspond to near-infrared (940 nm), red (678 nm), and blue (495 nm) wavelengths.

It's a commonly-used phrase for an image that is real 'colour', but isn't as the human eye would see it.

In this case, RGB colours correspond to near-infrared (940 nm), red (678 nm), and blue (495 nm) wavelengths.