Characterization of the Outer Uranian Rings in the Visual and Near‐IR Using Keck, JWST, and HST Observations Based upon its blue color, radial extent and spectral features, we infer that the μ ring must be composed of tiny icy grains The ν $\nu $ ring is red, and composed of grains rich in organics, lik...

UPDATE: *this* link to our new Uranus rings paper should work without a paywall: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Characterization of the Outer Uranian Rings in the Visual and Near‐IR Using Keck, JWST, and HST Observations Based upon its blue color, radial extent and spectral features, we infer that the μ ring must be composed of tiny icy grains The ν $\nu $ ring is red, and composed of grains rich in organics, lik...

Paper here (apologies for paywall, and not sure why the pic shows jupiter!): agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Our new paper just dropped on the colorful outer "mu" and "nu" rings of Uranus, using Keck @keckobservatory.bsky.social, Hubble, and JWST 🔭 (LOTS of detail re observing faint rings next to a bright planet, and what the heck is tiny moon Mab doing in a blue ring?) keckobservatory.org/uranus-two-o...

A black, single-layer cake. The top is decorated with a pastel-rainbow telescope and galaxy map behind it.

A different view of the cake, showing the galaxy map spilling over the side.

DESI finished its originally planned survey last night!! ..and will keep going :)

I made a cake to celebrate. 🌌🔭
@desisurvey.bsky.social

Was honored to lead this panel and really enjoyed the panelists’ presentations and discussion

Finished a fun new art cat puzzle tonight, despite the “help” from young Charlemagne. Basquicat is a mood!

hey hbhammel.bsky.social check it out: someone is having her Jupiter Impact moment

Cosmic impacts never disappoint ❤️

In just a few hours (7:07 pm eastern), humans will officially set the record for the furthest our species has ever traveled from our home planet Earth (slightly further than Apollo 13 due to the specific flight path around the Moon) - which is pretty amazing

Save NASA Science Action Hub Updates and actions on the proposed cuts to NASA science in FY 2027.

The Planetary Society has re-launched our Save NASA Science action hub today given the draconian cuts proposed in the FY 2027 NASA budget — follow here for running updates, statements, charts, and advocacy actions you can take now:

planetary.org/save-nasa-sc...

Initial set of charts tracking some of the massive cuts from NASA's FY 2027 budget proposal are now posted at www.planetary.org/charts?imgke...

🔭 From the American Astronomical Society

"It’s Official: China Tops U.S. in R&D Spending" by @matthourihan.bsky.social www.aau.edu/newsroom/lea...

Promoting space exploration - one donut at a time 🚀 (full disclosure - I ate a Krispy Kreme donut this morning, albeit easter-themed)

This animation illustrates the astonishing cutting-edge robotic science that NASA does while at the same time pursuing human spaceflight - Dragonfly will launch 🚀 in 2028 and explore Saturn’s wildly dynamic moon Titan (which sports clouds, lakes, and rivers of complex hydrocarbon soup)

Spring has sprung in northern Virginia 🪻🌷🌸

Rubin Observatory 🔭 is going to reveal the dynamic and transient Universe beyond our wildest expectations. I’m especially interested in what we will learn about interstellar objects, and what the transient visitors will reveal about the chemistry of other planetary systems.

Rubin will rock the solar system discovery space

STScI is pleased to announce that Dr. Quyen Hart, project scientist for #NASAWebb science communications at STScI, and Dr. Heidi Hammel, vice president for science at @aura-astronomy.bsky.social, have been selected for the 2026 cohort of @aas.org's Shapley Visiting Lecturers.

England in 1819 By Percy Bysshe Shelley An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying King; Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn,—mud from a muddy spring; Rulers who neither see nor feel nor know, But leechlike to their fainting country cling Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow. A people starved and stabbed in th' untilled field; An army, whom liberticide and prey Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield; Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; Religion Christless, Godless—a book sealed; A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed— Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

teaching a Romanticism class in the fall again and keep thinking about how we're doing PBS's "England in 1819" as a checklist
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45118/...

@bsharkey.bsky.social

👀

Preaching to the choir here on bsky but still bears repeating, and repeating, and repeating

Thank you!

The 2026 AAS Shapley Lecturers. Top Row: Raja GuhaThakurta, Quyen Hart, David Leisawitz. Second Row: Steffani Grondin, Chris Impey, Angela Speck, Justin Robinson, Anjali Gupta. Third Row: Joel Weisberg, Heidi Hammel, Ryan French, Teresa Paneque-Carreño, Allyson Bieryla. Fourth Row: Antara Basu-Zych, Kavitha Arur, Anna Kapinska, Isabel Hawkins, Brad Barlow. Bottom Row: Michael Cushing, Katy Rodriguez Wimberly, Cameron Hummels. Image provided by Donna Richardson.

Excited to support the American Astronomical Society's Shapley Lecture program this year! I'll be heading to West Virginia for a series of events at a school, library, and other venues. aas.org/press/aas-an...

Happy to support this excellent work on 2024 YR4, in which JWST 🔭 shows that this asteroid will not hit the Moon in 2032 after all - whew! (though it would have been fun to watch!) Great team led by @asrivkin.bsky.social

a man wearing glasses is sitting in a chair clapping his hands . ALT: a man wearing glasses is sitting in a chair clapping his hands .

or also, i dunno, like maybe what you'd expect from an icy object that formed like 10–12 Gyr ago beyond the H2O ice line in a relatively cold, dense and well-shielded protoplanetary disk midplane? 😉

JWST 🔭 reports deuterium galore in 3I/ATLAS in new paper by @drcordiner.bsky.social et al. arxiv.org/pdf/2603.06911

As a longtime advocate for a US-led ice giant mission, I’m simultaneously disappointed (from a US perspective) and delighted (from a basic science perspective)

Oh Michele, I am so sorry. My deepest sympathy to you and your family.