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Ava Polzin

@avapolzin.bsky.social

professional nerd/astronomer avapolzin.github.io

121 Posts1065 Follower385 Folgt
Ava Polzin@avapolzin.bsky.social · 4w ago

Drinking game idea: take a shot every time I begin an answer with “yes, absolutely” 😅 But in all seriousness, I had a great time talking with @startswithabang.bsky.social about holistic study of the processes that govern galaxy evolution on his fantastic podcast!

Ethan Siegel@startswithabang.bsky.social · 4w ago

Starts With A Bang podcast #131 – The baryon life cycle The Universe was born with just hydrogen and helium for atoms: insufficient for making complex molecules, rocky planets, and life. So how did we get from there to here? bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #physics #podcast

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

It remains way past time to stop letting corporations unilaterally make a mess of the sky. Require regulators that actually do that, United States. Instead of regulators that let dangerous scams like this go forwards on the basis of blatant nonsense. uk.pcmag.com/news/166087/...

FCC Approves Reflect Orbital's Giant Mirror Satellite That Astronomers Hate

The FCC says the most controversial aspect of Reflect Orbital's Earendil-1 satellite, the giant mirror, falls out of its purview since the regulator mainly focuses on radio spectrum.

uk.pcmag.com

derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · last mo.

Justice Brown Jackson's argument for birthright citizenship is very moving. I recommend reading it in full. An excerpt with alt-text below. “The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation, not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery.” — KBJ

Still, most freed Blacks resisted the pressure to self-deport. Instead, many started organizing toward the creation of the kind of Nation the colonizationists opposed—one that guaranteed liberty and justice for all. In the decades leading up to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, Black Americans organized and gathered at more than 600 local and national conventions across the country. There, delegates erected the political and intellectual scaffolding for the Fourteenth Amendment and, later, for the Black Civil Rights Movement more generally. Critically for present purposes, these visionaries already understood themselves to be American citizens. “The refrains ‘we are Americans’ and ‘we are citizens’ echoed in conferences throughout the North.” Moreover, “[b]irthright figured importantly” as “delegates frequently characterized their status as that of native-born citizens.” The delegates argued that, as such, they had the requisite allegiance, so, at a minimum, the Federal Government owed them the duty of protection. The famed orator Frederick Douglass was one of these delegates. Capturing the spirit of the moment, Douglass proclaimed that Chief Justice Taney—the author of the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 19 How. 393 (1857)—“[could] do many things, but he [could not] … change the essential nature of things.” In the absence of the artificial evils of slavery and racial subordination, Douglass explained, “the glorious birthright of our common humanity, will become the inheritance of all the inhabitants of this highly favored country.” Do note this: The citizenship thesis of the Colored Conventions was thus not that some new status should be created and conferred on freed Blacks.It was instead that freed Blacks already had a rightful claim to citizenship because they had been born on American soil. After all, the Nation, from its founding, had “boldly proclaim[ed] that all men are born free and equal, and that consequently life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, are inherent in every individual, vested inalienably by natural birthright.” No ideal was more inherently American. Now, “rest[ing their] cause on the republican standard of the revolutionary Fathers,” freed Blacks were “knock[ing] at the doors of the constitution and demand[ing] an entrance.” And “[i]f … asked what evidence [they] bring to sustain [their] qualifications for citizenship, [they would] offer them certificates of … BIRTH and NATIVITY.” Would the Nation live up to its promise? Such universalist appeals were a conscious choice. Yes, Black Americans had suffered a singular wrong. And yes, they had “fought and bled” for the Union, paying a steep price for their freedom. But the delegates did not rest on these laurels. Rather, they drew upon the moral and political force of the universal principles that were already core to the Nation’s identity. That bears repeating: Freed Blacks did not advocate for a unique set of rules that catered only to their situation. Nor did they seek to advance their own position relative to, or at the expense and exclusion of, other marginalized groups.Instead, those whose gatherings helped galvanize the push for full equality understood that “[a] diverse origin does not disprove a common nature, nor does it disprove a united destiny.” The firmest foundation for freedom would require an anticaste reset—“both for his sake and for ours”—and would benefit all. During his U. S. Senate candidacy, Abraham Lincoln developed a similar vision. In the lead-up to the now-famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln explained that the promise of liberty and equality in the Declaration of Independence “was held sacred by all, and thought to include all.” Lincoln expressly and intentionally linked the fate of Black Americans and immigrant groups (“among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all” of the Founders), and noted that the Nation’s future hinged on a universal definition of citizenship that excluded neither. He explained that the Declaration’s promise that “all men are created equal” was the “electric cord … that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together,” regardless of race or descent. The case was made. First, there was war. And then, the delegates’ (and Lincoln’s) universalist view of citizenship made its mark on the Constitution.
Headquarters@headquartersnews.bsky.social · last mo.

Rep. Casar: While we won the case today, we got a warning about the future. What should have been a simple, unanimous, open and shut decision was dangerously close. Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh failed to recognize the Constitutional right to birthright citizenship

Ethan Siegel@startswithabang.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The challenge of celebrating Artemis II as NASA cuts loom With Artemis II, we sent humans back to the Moon for the first time in 54 years, breaking our the all-time distance record from Earth. But few are celebrating amid deep NASA and NSF cuts. bigthink.com/starts-with-... #space #astro #nasa

The challenge of celebrating Artemis II as NASA cuts loom

NASA has just sent astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since 1972 with Artemis II. So why would we cut NASA and NSF science now?

bigthink.com

Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · 4mo ago

A number of space science organizations offered support for Isaacman's nomination because he is a proponent of space exploration and claimed he would support science. But now that science is on the chopping block -- and human spaceflight isn't -- he is volunteering to give NASA the DOGE treatment.

Jeff Foust@jfoust.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Rep. Subramanyam (D-VA): can we cut science by half and get the same results? Isaacman: my commitment is to maximize the value of every dollar; we can do more with less.

Michael Brown@mjibrown.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"A large constellation such as SpaceX’s Orbital Data Center... would place thousands of satellites above naked-eye visibility threshold, comparable to the number of natural stars typically visible in a dark sky."

Large or bright satellite constellations: Effects on observations, including on the background sky brightness

This study evaluates the effect of proposed constellations -- ranging from current deployments to mega-constellations and very bright reflector concepts -- on direct trail losses, diffuse background, ...

arxiv.org

Dr. Jessie Christiansen@aussiastronomer.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I hope everyone who checked out @hogg.bsky.social’s white paper on the implications of LLMs in astronomy and shared it across slack channels similarly perused and amplified this white paper of best practices for broadening participation in astronomy!

Ava Polzin@avapolzin.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Happy International Women's Day! Perfect time for me to (re)share our white paper on increasing the retention of women in professional astrophysics (really full of suggestions that broaden participation in academic science in general). arxiv.org/abs/2512.24465 🧪🔭☄️👩‍🔬

Cover of "Picture an Astronomer: Best Practices for Retaining Talent in Astrophysics", which features an illustration of a 19-year-old Vera Rubin looking through a telescope over a backdrop of a first light image of spiral galaxies from the Rubin Observatory.
Ava Polzin@avapolzin.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Happy International Women's Day! Perfect time for me to (re)share our white paper on increasing the retention of women in professional astrophysics (really full of suggestions that broaden participation in academic science in general). arxiv.org/abs/2512.24465 🧪🔭☄️👩‍🔬

Cover of "Picture an Astronomer: Best Practices for Retaining Talent in Astrophysics", which features an illustration of a 19-year-old Vera Rubin looking through a telescope over a backdrop of a first light image of spiral galaxies from the Rubin Observatory.
Josiah Hawthorne@josiahhawthorne.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This is your reminder that Hungarian-Jewish scientist George de Hevesy dissolved two Nobel Prizes in aqua regia to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis. He then left the dissolved solution on his shelf and fled to Sweden. (After the war he un-dissolved the gold and the prizes were re-cast.)

Bild
Ava Polzin@avapolzin.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Happy New Year! + happy (white) paper day! arxiv.org/abs/2512.24465 Whether you're waiting for the ball to drop or looking to start 2026 off right, you can read about evidence-backed best practices for retaining talent in astrophysics, which came out of discussions at our March symposium :) 🧪🔭☄️👩‍🔬

Cover of "Picture an Astronomer: Best Practices for Retaining Talent in Astrophysics", which features an illustration of a 19-year-old Vera Rubin looking through a telescope over a backdrop of a first light image of spiral galaxies from the Rubin Observatory.
Ava Polzin@avapolzin.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Dick Durbin’s Rock Island office is taking voicemails if you are, like me, a betrayed constituent: 309.786.5173 (I called hours ago, but understand it’s still taking messages with no problem, and none of his other numbers allow you to leave a voicemail.)