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Posts by Dr Laura Driessen

A selfie of a woman. She's wearing a light blue tshirt with a denim dress over it. The dress has rockets and planets on it. She's smiling, has her hair pulled back, and is wearing glasses. In the background you can see a big teddy bear to her left and a doll to her right

A selfie of a woman. She's wearing a light blue tshirt with a denim dress over it. The dress has rockets and planets on it. She's smiling, has her hair pulled back, and is wearing glasses. In the background you can see a big teddy bear to her left and a doll to her right

At the ABC today to chat science with Dr Karl on Triple J at 11am AEDT! Important to say hi to Big Ted, Little Ted and Jemima

1 month ago 10 0 0 0

Awesome! I heard it was pretty good in Brissy!

1 month ago 1 0 0 0

An hour until the partial lunar eclipse starts! Then the total lunar eclipse at 10:04pm AEDT. I'm in cloudy Canberra, but I've heard that Brisbane and Perth have lovely clear skies! πŸŒšπŸ”­

1 month ago 2 0 1 0
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Space Name Registry A unique gift for your loved one

And if you'd like to support making my star-naming website (where you can't buy stars but can find out why and symbolically name a star for free) more visible on Google, you can check it out at SpaceNameRegistry.com

1 month ago 1 1 0 0
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For $40, you can name a star for your Valentine. But it won’t mean much So what names do astronomers use for stars and how are official star names selected?

If you'd prefer to read about it, I wrote a @aunz.theconversation.com article last week: theconversation.com/for-40-you-c...

1 month ago 0 0 1 0
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Lab Notes: Why buying a star name is nonsense - ABC listen A quick online search reveals multiple paid services for naming stars as commemorative gifts. You'll be provided with a certificate and a map for finding your star in the sky. But these names are not ...

Selling stars is big business. If you missed my written rant about it last week, you can listen to me rant about it on the ABC instead πŸ˜†
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr... πŸ”­πŸ§ͺ

1 month ago 19 7 1 0

Thanks Rami! Someone told me a really good idea: they asked a local astrophotographer to take a photo of the night sky on their daughter's bday and gave that as a gift. Supports a local astrophotographer, is lovely and meaningful, and not a rip off!

2 months ago 14 2 0 0

That must be so frustrating! At least stars aren't physical land somewhere

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Space Name Registry A unique gift for your loved one

So much frustration, in fact, that I made a whole website that looks like a star-selling website, but if you click "buy now" you can actually symbolically name a star for free

spacenameregistry.com

You can't actually buy stars on my website of course. It instead explains why you can't

πŸ”­πŸ§ͺ

2 months ago 16 4 1 1
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For $40, you can name a star for your Valentine. But it won’t mean much So what names do astronomers use for stars and how are official star names selected?

Today's Conversation article brought to you by extreme frustration πŸ˜–

theconversation.com/for-40-you-c...

πŸ§ͺπŸ”­

2 months ago 23 2 1 1

Astronomers being close to travel bloggers makes sense πŸ˜… it's fun that we're near the @galaxyzoo.org account!

2 months ago 4 0 1 0

Wow! Fabulous!

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🀣🀣🀣 gotta mention our little bro who gets to see way more auroras and I'm totally not jealous of πŸ˜…

2 months ago 1 0 1 0

Hahahe one of the only people who doesn't want to see it 🀣 as a radio astronomer, solar activity also heckin screws up our stuff πŸ˜…

2 months ago 1 0 0 0

You say that, but it's been overcast all day in Sydney πŸ˜… I'm not counting on seeing it up here anyway. Today I reckon I'd prefer freezing with auroras over warm with no auroras!

2 months ago 1 0 0 0
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If you're going to give it a shot, head as far south and away from light pollution as possible. A long exposure on your phone camera will pick it up better than your eyes. Happy aurora hunting!

2 months ago 3 0 1 0

Auroras are pretty fickle beasts, but fingers crossed the geomagnetic storm will continue into the Australian night so some of us can see it! πŸ”­

The further south you are the better, Tasmania is best πŸ˜† bottom of the south island of NZ even better 🀣

2 months ago 19 1 3 0

❀️ thank you for your fab art!

3 months ago 1 0 0 0
A white dog sits facing forwards on a round, dark blue dog bed. He's wearing a red collar and purple lead. He has brown spots and a brown patch over one eye. He has dark brown ears. He's  a whippet, so he's pretty skinny and has a pointy face

A white dog sits facing forwards on a round, dark blue dog bed. He's wearing a red collar and purple lead. He has brown spots and a brown patch over one eye. He has dark brown ears. He's a whippet, so he's pretty skinny and has a pointy face

Astro, for reference 🐢

3 months ago 7 0 0 0
A cute drawing of a dog's face looking up at a little star above his head. He has a white face with a brown patch over one eye and brown ears

A cute drawing of a dog's face looking up at a little star above his head. He has a white face with a brown patch over one eye and brown ears

Literally a few hours ago I commissioned @bsky.rennatelier.art to draw my dog Astro and she already finished it for me! How cute is this?! I love it! vgen.co/rennatelier ❀️

3 months ago 11 1 2 0

If you didn't get to see the aurora, there are loads of stunning pics of it on here to enjoy! I got a faint pink glow in a 4 second phone camera exposure, nothing by eye πŸ€·β€β™€οΈ

5 months ago 3 0 0 0

Grateful for Earth's global magnetic field today. Protecting us from cosmic radiation and putting on a light show?! Mars could never πŸ’…

5 months ago 7 0 1 0

Aurora are notoriously difficult to predict, but I'm crossing my fingers and toes that it'll be visible tonight from Sydney and Perth as well as the southern parts of Australia. With how strong these flares are, there's a chance!

5 months ago 4 0 0 0

Lots of gorgeous pics of the aurora from the US already, hopefully we'll be just as in Australia and NZ lucky tonight!

5 months ago 3 0 1 0
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Aurora likely tonight as string of solar flares heads for Earth Four big outbursts from the Sun mean skies may light up much further from the poles than usual.

Want to see the aurora? Tonight might be the night!

There have been a bunch of coronal mass ejections (big flares of plasma) from the Sun that are all arriving at Earth today and tonight.

theconversation.com/aurora-likel...

5 months ago 11 1 2 0

Glad you enjoyed the article! It is frustrating to see headlines like that when the science is already cool

5 months ago 2 0 0 0

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

5 months ago 1 0 1 0
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Is it aliens? Why that’s the least important question about interstellar objects The alien question, while fun, generates misinformation and distracts from the science.

I've been thinking a bit about how talking about aliens affects how we share new astronomy discoveries, so I wrote an article about it πŸ‘½πŸ”­πŸ§ͺ theconversation.com/is-it-aliens...

5 months ago 43 10 4 0
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Apply to Write for Astrobites 2025! Love astronomy, astrophysics, and science communication? Come join the Astrobites team! Applications due November 26th.

Are you a grad student interested in writing for Astrobites, or do you know one? We're recruiting! Apply by November 26 :)

astrobites.org/2025/10/31/a...

5 months ago 67 49 3 3
Screenshot of tweet from the ARC saying they will announce DP26 outcomes on Tuesday 28th Oct, and LP25r1 outcomes on Wednesday 29th.

Screenshot of tweet from the ARC saying they will announce DP26 outcomes on Tuesday 28th Oct, and LP25r1 outcomes on Wednesday 29th.

ARC says Discovery Projects outcomes will be tomorrow (Tuesday). Linkage Projects (2025, round 1) on Wed. Over past ~year, it's often been at about 11am (Canberra).

My bot will pick up the change to RMS & post immediately.

ARC should email outcomes to lead CIs, but might take an 1hr or so for DPs

5 months ago 53 27 1 3