If you’re in the UK, vaguely interested in space stuff, aren’t busy at 8.30am tomorrow or sick of hearing me witter on then tune into BBC breakfast as I’ll be talking about NASA’s #ArtemisII mission (assuming nothing crazy happens in the interim 🫣). Wish me luck!

Today is (hopefully) the start of a new era in human spaceflight, when a women, a person of colo(u)r and a non-American leave low Earth orbit - destined for the moon. Follow it here: m.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR... Ad Astra and safe travels to the @nasaartemis.bsky.social astronauts.

NASA's Artemis II Live Mission Coverage (Official Broadcast)

YouTube video by NASA

m.youtube.com

My youngest asked me how many Mondays there had ever been. My initial answer was 4.57 billions years x 52 Mondays in a year = 237,640,000,000 Mondays However, this assumes Earth's orbital parameters have been constant, which is wrong. Must. Not. Spend. Rest. Of. Week. Attempting. To. Solve. This.

It’s been a stressful few months, so I took today off and walked the long way to a pub lunch. I’ve had worse ideas.

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science to all those that identify as both Female and a Scientist! Keep up the good work :)

These might look like mediocre cupcakes, but they are in fact my “there’s finally enough people in my research group to hold a group meeting” celebration cupcakes. Meeting Agenda item #1: how to improve my cupcake game. Meeting Agenda item #2: how we science all the things. Big day.

Bucket list item unlocked: I'm so proud to be included as a guest in this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures! I'm in Lecture 2 which (in the UK) is aired at 7pm on 29th Dec on BBC4, or on iPlayer now. Tune in to find out why moons might be the best places to find non-Earth life! EEEEEEEEP!

Hey space fans! The podcast I recorded with @profbriancox.bsky.social and other fab folks is out now! www.lnk.to/AQOSSpacePA It’s all about who owns space - increasingly important as we rely on it for so much of our communication. Bonus photos here too: crick.chorus.thirdlight.com/link/5r04kyg...

Who Owns Space?

Professor Brian Cox and an expert panel tackle the technology, politics and ethics of space exploration.   From space tourism to the search for life on Mars, space is a rapidly expanding, multi-trill...

lnk.to

Hard to believe we are at Pluto+10 years. A lot has changed in that time, it feels almost like another life. But somethings stay the same - like my tshirt. Loving catching up with people, missing some of my Pluto-peeps that couldn’t make it. See you at the next one x #newhorizons #pluto

Planetary peeps: I'm looking for a three-year postdoc to do some Europa surface science. It can sponsor visas, so please apply/forward this info to anyone that might be interested. More info here: shorturl.at/7DKlj #Europa #postdoc #planetary

I'm looking for a postdoc for my group at the University of Oxford (UK) to study #Europa surface. The position is open to international candidates and the university can sponsor visa etc. Please apply/forward as you see fit. Full details here: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... #planetary #job

We still have a spacecraft 🙌🏻 science.nasa.gov/blogs/lucy/2...

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Completes Asteroid Donaldjohanson Flyby - NASA Science

The Lucy operations team has confirmed NASA’s Lucy spacecraft phoned home after its encounter with the main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson. The spacecraft’s closest approach to the asteroid occurred at ...

science.nasa.gov

One more sleep. Eeep! #lucymission #asteroid #letsscience www.nasa.gov/missions/luc...

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Prepares Second Asteroid Encounter - NASA

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft is 6 days and less than 50 million miles (80 million km) away from its second close encounter with an asteroid; this time, the small

nasa.gov

Blatant self promo: I'm on this week's BBC Sky at Night chatting about asteroid science and the upcoming Lucy Mission encounter. Spoiler alert - Asteroid strike in the foreseeable is unlikely. So that's something.

Based on the science, diversity matters www.nature.com/articles/s43... "...science has established the importance of diversity time and time again."

New from @propublica.org: We studied a massive set of hospital discharge data to see what happened after Texas banned abortion. …

How much Elon Musk makes from the government a day: $8 million. How much a senior on Social Security gets a day: $65 Guess which budget Musk and Trump want to cut?