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Michele Bannister

@astrokiwi.bsky.social

Planetary astronomer @UCNZ: envisioning worlds from here and elsewhere, in a dark & glorious sky. Rutherford Discovery Fellow & Assoc. Professor. Asteroid (10463). Pākehā; she

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Sean Raymond (planetplanet.net)@planetplanet.bsky.social · last wk.

In this new paper we showed that interstellar objects can be captured as a byproduct of stars flying by each other in the Galaxy (no planets involved). It only works for strong-enough encounters, probably just a few for the Sun during its history. It means that all stars have (sparse) Oort clouds

Meg Schwamb@megschwamb.bsky.social · 2w ago

Capture of interstellar objects during stellar encounters - Raymond et al (in press) arxiv.org/abs/2607.18551

Josef Aschbacher@josefaschbacher.esa.int · last wk.

My teams have completed all necessary checks and testing of the Cebreros station. After careful review, we have declared the antenna GREEN for nominal operations as of 27 July.

Josef Aschbacher@josefaschbacher.esa.int · 2w ago

Based on current information, the Cebreros station appears to have remained unharmed. My deepest thanks go to the Spanish emergency services whose efforts helped protect the site as wildfires approached. Left: 24 July 19:57, Right: 25 July 07:54

Don Davis@ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 2w ago

After the 1st context panoramas, the next anticipated image was the first color photo. This arrived and was printed initially too blue, then the next adjusted image came out too reddish. Later work quantified the surface and sky colors in results consistent with the observations of later missions.

The first color photograph from the surface of Mars arrived about 24 hours after the landing as grayscale 'scans' of the landscape with the red, green and blue filters. The 3 component images came in with the red brightest and the blue the dimmest, which when initially combined appeared so red that they were skeptical of the colors. The initial hurried release of that image occurred 8 hours after the data was received. The intent was to make the sky a neutral gray, but during the photograph's mass printing from a master negative the color balance of that first batch somehow drifted toward the blue, giving an initial 'Earth like' impression to the scene and sky. This initial release (upper left) appeared on TV news and the covers and color spreads of many magazines. Later (lower left) A slightly 'over corrected' version emphasizing the reddish ambience was released. Later work with the digital files shows an approximation of the scene as if lit by noon sunlight with minimal ambient contribution (upper right) and an approximation of the scene with the ambient lighting from the bright butterscotch colored sky factored in (lower right). This is the closest to what eventual human explorers could see and photograph there with their own cameras. The initial prints were distributed, I was fortunate to get one which I still have, and a large color print was shown on an easel, which people were gathered at transfixed, staring at this first 'window' into Mars. High end color CRT monitors with that image were scattered across the press area. They were adjusted better than the prints, using separate RGB adjustments in the back. I got close to one monitor and someone warned me not to touch it, that someone had just gotten yelled at by Jim Martin for playing with the colors! I later learned more about this story, which contributed to a conspiracy narrative which the early internet conveyed that NASA was trying to hide the true Earthlike appearance of Mars.
Michele Bannister@astrokiwi.bsky.social · 3w ago

Reflecting on how meaningful this trip has been on the professional front. A lot to be said for starting with a massive conference and seeing a whole heap of work friends, then following that with targeted visits to new and old collaborations. So many ideas. But even more, so many connections

Madam Snazzy@moatatamaira.bsky.social · 2y ago

Reminder that you can sign off emails today with: Kia pai te tau hou (Have a good new year) Kia pai to mutunga wiki roa (Have a good long weekend) Ngā mihi o te tau hou (Greetings for the new year)

Michael Busch@michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 4w ago

At #ACM2026, Davide Farnocchia presents current knowledge of the trajectory of #1998KY26 : iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... . It is a fast-spinning and high albedo asteroid. And the orbit is explained by radiation pressure, with no need for "dark comet" outgassing. Good news for Hayabusa 2.

Radiation Forces and Trajectory of Hayabusa2♯ Target 1998 KY26

Radiation Forces and Trajectory of Hayabusa2♯ Target 1998 KY26, Farnocchia, Davide, Vokrouhlický, David, Santana-Ros, Toni, Bartczak, Przemysław, Micheli, Marco, Chesley, Steven R.

iopscience.iop.org