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Andy Rivkin

@asrivkin.bsky.social

Planetary Astronomer on #TeamAsteroid; Gedankenband member/guitarist; “Surprisingly nonchalant” according to Wired. He/him הנני 🌻 Work Output: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aGVsk3IAAAAJ Play output: https://andyrivkin.bandcamp.com

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Andy Rivkin@asrivkin.bsky.social · 15m ago

It's Family Day here, and my office is close to a window looking out on the atrium where various spacecraft models are hanging. People are taking their kids to the window and describing the models. One excited child asked "The Van Alien Probes?" which has a whole different vibe than the real thing.

ESO@eso.org · 4h ago

Earlier today, the discarded upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket impacted on the Moon. As part of a coordinated observing campaign, our Very Large Telescope detected spectral lines of sodium and lithium gas in the impact plume lasting for 5-10 minutes after impact. 🔭 🧪 📷 ESO/C. Schmidt et al. 1/4

Andy Rivkin@asrivkin.bsky.social · 5h ago

Lots of additional great answers to this pointing to various things, so I'll give weather forecasting a shout out. It's not perfect, and it's a really complicated problem, but particularly in terms of near-term and hyper-local forecasting we are _far_ far ahead of what was possible in the 80s.

Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 18h ago

Food, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.

dorian @doriantaylor.com air travel is one of those experiences that has gotten monotonically worse over my entire lifetime question though: has *anything* in the last 40+ years genuinely gotten *better*? like, there's *more* stuff, sure, but is any of it *better*? 2:58 PM Aug 4, 2026
Matt Albertson@mattalbertson.bsky.social · 18h ago

I saw a short video today on the importance of Al Reach and his sporting goods business. It started off good before going off a cliff, stating that his company dated to 1874 and that he bought the Worcester (NL) franchise and moving them to Philadelphia. Let's fix that and do a deep dive.

Bild
Dr. Rebecca Barnes (she/her)@waterbarnes.bsky.social · 21h ago

The new #OMB rules would transform funding decisions. I don't know where I would be without #NSF funding. Thanks @agu.org for providing a way to submit comments about the latest set of disastrous OMB rule changes. Deadline Aug 24th #resist agu.quorum.us/campaign/dvw...

Submit your comment now to help stop NSF from implementing harmful grantmaking changes

A new proposed rule would rewrite the terms of U.S. science at NSF. Submit a comment today to fight back.

agu.quorum.us

Helen Kennedy@helenkennedy.com · yesterday

Read it here if you haven't yet. Today is the very best day of all days to read it for the first time. short-stories.co/@raybradbury...

There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury

The voice-clock sang, breakfast was ejected, but no doors slammed. The garage chimed and lifted its door to reveal the waiting car. The house sat alone in a city of rubble and…

short-stories.co

Adam Rawnsley@arawnsley.bsky.social · yesterday

Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.

Don Davis@ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 3d ago

51 years ago I painted a trio of Viking related works for NASA HQ including the widely reproduced one of the landing on Mars. I have reimagined the Landing portrayal in updated form using digital methods of visualization and painting. I chose the same angle but with reality replacing anticipation.

This oil painting portrays the Viking 1 landing on Mars, which appeared in countless publications. The story of this work is relayed in an earlier post and is shown here for comparison with the new portrayal of this very view, showing the event as it would have appeared. This 1975 anticipatory painting was done with oils on a gesso smoothed 16 X 20 canvas panel, using traditional art methods including a tracing paper guide featured earlier. This work shows in retrospect my ideal of the 'spirit of space art', showing something of a summary of what is known of the subject while conveying what it is about the subject's known or theorized attributes that I find visually compelling. The new digital painting updates that visual impression with one based on our current knowledge. The new digital work was also done at the same size as this one was for possible printing purposes, 16 by 20 inches at 300 DPI. #Sciart In 1976 the pair of Viking spacecraft orbiter/lander combos were sent to Mars. Before Viking, Mars was still largely a place of our imaginations, an unknown that we wrote stories about then studied from Earth and space. The dominance of cratered terrain on the portions of Mars photographed by Mariners 4, 6 and 7 gave an initially Lunar impression of that world, which changed during the development of the Viking lander after Mariner 9 revealed the planet. The first landing was aimed for a flat flood plain, judged as a decent place to search for life. The landing date was July 4, however the intended site appeared too rough for comfort in the high quality orbiter photos, causing the landing to wisely be delayed. A smoother site further 'down stream' was found using photo and radar data. The landing proceeded quite nominally, a magnificent achievement that apparently accounted for what it had to and made it the first time. The first photo from the surface was a look at a footpad to see how solid the 'footing' appeared. Then a moderate resolution panorama of the surroundings was obtained, first showing the rocks, hills, dunes-and bright sky. The latter was my biggest surprise as a space artist. The adjustments to the color balance of the later photos were gradually narrowed down. The ubiquitous dust is planet wide, suspended in the air and coloring the sky a luminous tan ochre. This digital painting shows the view a meter above the surface seeing the lander briefly kicking up dust less than a second before touchdown with the footpads 1.4 meters high. The landing rockets were designed with many nozzles to disturb the surroundings as little as possible. The nearby disturbed dust resembles in color that of the sky. We are 6 meters away from the center of the lander. field of view is 60 degrees, we are looking Northwest with the Sun and Earth off the frame to the left. This is a digital art update of the pre mission oil painting I did for NASA HQ 1n 1975. #Sciart
Andy Rivkin@asrivkin.bsky.social · 2d ago

I cannot hate the Dodgers for doing what the Yankees should have spent the last 20 years doing: not just *being* but *acting* both smart and rich at the same time. Count me among those who think the franchises ruining baseball are those whose aspirations go no further than a Wild Card spot.

Defector@defector.com · 2d ago

"Perhaps baseball is already ruined just because people keep insisting that it is. I suppose your verdict depends on whether you believe more in what you hear or what you see." defector.com/if-baseball-...