Redirecting funding from basic science to applied science isn't just wrong because you need to start with basics - because products are assembled out of *many* ideas. It's like asking farmers to pivot from making tomatoes, cheese, grains, mushrooms, herbs, and focus on making pizzas.
New AAS Journal Author Series Video! 🔭
Guilherme Limberg (UChicago) shares the discovery of one of the most metal-poor stars known ([Fe/H] ≈ −4.8) in the Milky Way’s outer halo — offering clues to its origin and possible link to the Magellanic system.
📺 youtu.be/Y9lW7UBdN7A
A blurried view of a starry night sky above a desert landscape with the Milky Way visible. On the right, a globe of Earth is surrounded by thousands of colored dots representing satellites in orbit. Overlaid text reads: “ESO files response to new threats to dark skies.”
Reflect Orbital and SpaceX have filed proposals with the US Federal Communications Commission that threaten ground-based astronomy. We submitted replies and collaborated with the UK Royal Astronomical Society & the International Astronomical Union for their responses 🔭🧪
The open metallic dome of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) at the centre of the picture, taking up the lower half of the frame. At the top, like a river the Milky Way band horizontally pours into the ELT. The construction site of the ELT is surrounded by cranes
As the Milky Way band appears to pour into our ELT, the cranes around it seem to do the same while they further advance the telescope 🏗️ 🔭
Once complete, the ELT will be breaking down the light above in unparalleled detail.
More: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2533a/ 🧪
📷 C. Letelier/ESO
Illustration of a large spherical object that looks like a gas giant planet. The object appears to have bands of tan, orange, and dark red horizontal lines forming patterns similar to those in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The background is filled with thousands of distant stars that form a Milky Way-like band running from left to right. The host star, Alpha Centauri A, appears as a glowing white circle to the upper left of the planet. Further off in the distance above and to the right of the planet is a smaller glowing circle, nearby Alpha Centauri B. The words “Artist’s Concept” are in the lower left corner.
New kid on the block 🪐
Webb has found the strongest evidence yet of a gas giant around Alpha Centauri A!
If confirmed, it would be the nearest planet that orbits in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.
Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭 🧪
Farewell #Gaia. You did a great job, now rest and watch over us and the Galaxy. I will continue my work to understand our #milkyway with all the stars you've measured.
Thanks a lot and a huge congratulations!
@esa.int now we need Gaia-NIR.
I gave up after 10 mins and 15 other folks waiting.
The star SOS1 is not like its neighbors — what do high-precision chemical abundances tell us about where this star might have come from? aasnova.org/2025/01/03/r... 🔭🧪
