A ghostly-looking image of powerful jets of radiation coming from a galaxy. (This is Chandra’s view of the galaxy Centaurus A.) There are wispy blue bubbles in the upper left and lower right and a bright blue jet of radiation emanating from the center of the image up to the upper left.

Chandra, the space-based observatory that brings us incredible x-ray images of the most extreme environments in the cosmos, is at risk of cancellation. It’ll be a huge loss to astronomy if the mission ends prematurely for budget reasons. Go to www.savechandra.org to find out how to help #SaveChandra

Also phone calls really are quick and easy. I called both my reps and left messages with staffers in less than 5 minutes. #saveChandra

Also, if you want to know more about how those arguments were wrong/misrepresented, please read the excellent letter from Chandra director Patrick Slane here: cxc.cfa.harvard.edu/cdo/announce...

Please call your senators and ask them to *restore full operations funding* for the Chandra X-ray observatory! I really believe NASA has simply made a mistake here and cannot realize that the arguments put forward for decommissioning it were just /wrong/. www.savechandra.org

University email: STUDENT has requested that you write a letter of recommendation on their behalf.

Me: Ok. Which dept?

Uni:

Me: Uhh.... When is this due?

Uni: By the deadline.

Me: Which is...?

Uni: Is this student (A) the best student you ever worked with or (B) the worst? 🧪🎢 #AcademicChatter

..... aaaaand now ScienCV is down, hours/days before most institutions will have their internal deadlines. lol sob.

It was a really nice talk!

It'sva tough call but I'm going with coffee. ;)

GREAT NEWS! From the latest JAXA briefing: Solar panels deployed, nominal voltage seen, sun acquired, initializing thrusters and reaction wheels.

XRISM LAUNCH SUCCESS!!! Congratulations JAXA

That was fun, I know nothing about animals, and I will never get it in 5 guesses again... 🦋 Animal #36 🐹
I figured it out in 5 guesses!
🟥🟥🟨🟥🟩
🔥 1 | Avg. Guesses: 5

metazooa.com
#metazooa

Miracle Plant Used in Ancient Greece Rediscovered After 2,000 Years Ancient Greeks used a 'miracle' plant called Silphium, which was thought to have gone extinct 2,000 years ago, has now been rediscovered.

BIG if true! Silphium, thought to have been harvested to extinction by the Romans, (possibly) rediscovered in Turkey. greekreporter.com/2023/08/13/p...

This is amazing, I remember reading about this plant and esp its contraceptive uses. I got a chuckle out of this part though: "...sheep and goats are fond of the leaves, as is mentioned in Pliny’s record of the ancient silphion."...err, 'goats eat it' is sadly not specific, lol.

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super cool! If I hadn't done astrophysics, linguistics would definitely have been my calling.

Who Really Invented the Alphabet? Who really invented the alphabet? Although we are still uncertain about precisely where the world’s most influential communication system came from, we know more than we did 20 years ago.

In which I show that there's no evidence that the inventors of the alphabet could actually read. www.asor.org/anetoday/202.... Instead a remarkable "working misunderstanding" led to the alphabet's rise, much as with the invention of Greek script. ClassicsBluesky

It's very nice but I still have a beef with NRAO for destroying the utility of the archive for, you know, ARCHIVAL data searches. :)

Real truth: I never really used twitter except to find other astronomers excited about things like the HST proposal deadline. But I am reformed and ready to do this thing.