New science from the world’s largest solar telescope 🔭

Lee Billings@leebillings.bsky.social · 4h ago

Now on @sciam.bsky.social: Behold! These are the sharpest images of the sun's surface ever obtained, and they reveal something *wild*: never-before-seen whirlpools of plasma called Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities that are fundamental to solar energy flow. www.scientificamerican.com/article/spec...

Today is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:

a wooly man without a face@jojororo.bsky.social · yesterday

archive.org/details/brad...

Very good post and article at so many levels. “Joy and struggle can co-exist.” Find a little joy.

A Chronic Voice@achronicvoice.com · 7d ago

"I began treating my #body not like a malfunctioning machine, but like a scared messenger. Something that wanted to be understood. Something that was trying, in its own way, to #protect me..There was power in that shift.": buff.ly/L6wkHWM via tinybuddha #ChronicIllness #mindset #perspective #joy

Awesome to see JWST doing such great 🔭 work in the outer Solar System! Phyllosilicates on small Neptune moons!! Whodathunkit?

Ryleigh Davis@import-astrory.bsky.social · last wk.

My new paper is out in Science Advances! Neptune's inner moons preserve clay minerals from the deep interiors of ancient icy worlds, exposed by Triton's catastrophic arrival. Here's the story and what it tells us about the violent history of the Neptunian system. 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is one of the key radio dishes in the Deep Space Network (DSN) which we use to communicate with distant spacecraft throughout the Solar System

Katiesaurus@katiesaurusseven.bsky.social · 2w ago

with alt text

!!!

Alejandro S. Borlaff@asborlaff.bsky.social · 2w ago

NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex under smoke and flames from the forest fires in Spain. 24 July 2026.

Nice 🧵 about the power of Rubin Observatory, the newest big telescope 🔭 in the portfolio managed by @aura-astronomy.bsky.social

NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory@vrubinobs.bsky.social · 2w ago

Talk about a cosmic glow-up✨📸 This progression of images of galaxy group RSCG 55 shows the evolution of ground-based sky surveys spanning more than three decades🤯, ending with NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory's view. 🔭🧪

Happy First Birthday to Kit Charlemagne!

Charlemagne shows some beanage during lap time

OPPORTUNITY: The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, is seeking a Human Resources Division Head to serve as a senior leader responsible for aligning HR strategy with STScI's institutional vision and goals: https://bit.ly/4bmi9CD

No way was I going into hot DC this July 4th weekend, so I made this celebratory puzzle instead - better than being there!

Happy 250th U.S.A. from AURA! In patriotic red white & blue, from NASA’s Hubble, this is the largest protoplanetary disk ever observed circling a young star. 📷 NASA, ESA, STScI, Kristina Monsch (CfA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) 250 years of American astronomy!

Say what you want, but Cape Verde made Argentina work for that win

Cape Verde WHAT!

Here comes the Sun

Dr. Ryan French@ryanjfrench.bsky.social · last mo.

The Sun has really woken up over the past 48 hours, producing multiple solar flares (including an “X-class” event), across 4 different regions. Further large flares are likely in the coming days!

cutting pure science to prioritize applications is fundamentally like asking farmers not to waste time producing grain, cheese, and tomatoes and focus on making pizzas

[star] Lights, [huge] Camera, aaaand ... Action! The NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory's @vrubinobs.bsky.social 🔭 Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) has started! Congrats to all who have worked so hard on this project! noirlab.edu/public/news/...

Action! NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Begins Capturing the Greatest Cosmic Movie Ever Made - The 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time has officially started, marking the beginning of a new era ...

The wait is over: NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, is now capturing the cosmos in unprecedented detail, ...

noirlab.edu

Friends in Cambridge/Boston: I'm trying to help a young person looking for a job. Smart, hard worker. They are working remotely but are looking for something new. Please let me know if you have leads, either for a job or a good recruiter who can help them find a job. DM me for details. TIA!

“And the building shakes in Seattle!” PNSN’s seismic stations captured the crowd response to both Alex Freeman’s goal and the VAR decision overturning the offside call. It’s #USMNT 2 to Australia 0 at half-time. #WorldCup2026 #FIFAWorldCup #SportsSeismology

New theoretical study of possible interiors of Uranus and Neptune, though the authors admit "magma" is a fraught term in this context (but props for ~correct colors to illustrate U&N outer atmospheres!) arxiv.org/abs/2606.18219 - my takeaway: we REALLY need a mission to one or both ice giants

Do you know what sounds more believable than “A sophisticated civilization developed impressive construction techniques over centuries”? Apparently: “Space people.”

Notes from a Tired Egyptian Guy Whose Job Is Explaining That Humans Built the Pyramids

A traveler asked: “How could ancient people possibly understand mathematics?” Excellent question. We accidentally invented geometry while trying to avoid car...

buff.ly

The recording is now available solarsystem.video/w/bjEKEhgTir...

Europlanet webinar: LSST sweeping the skies: an avalanche of new minor bodies expected.

01:44 LSST Sweeping the Skies by Meg Schmamb (Queen's University, Belfast, UK) 21:04 To Near-Earth Space (and Beyond) with LSST by Rosemary Dorsey (University of Helsinki, Finland) 52:16 Q&A Hi...

solarsystem.video

Europlanet@europlanetmedia.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The LSST is anticipated to discover an avalanche of new asteroids and comets throughout the Solar System. We'll talk about this a new webinar with Meg Schwamb (Queen’s University, Belfast) and Rosemary Dorsey (University of Helsinki). Do not miss this! Register: bit.ly/europlanet_lsst

🔭

American Astronomical Society (AAS)@aas.org · 2mo ago

#AAS248 NSF NOIRLab Open House Today at 6:15 pm! Attendees are invited to share their perspectives, ask questions, and join the conversation about the nation's optical-infrared astronomy facilities and their future development. Refreshments will be available! Conference Center, Room 106

I love learning new things, today’s edition (I knew the concept, just not the phrase): damnatio memoriae

This week my siblings and I were together - all three of us at once - for the first time in decades (we think our last time was maybe 1997?)

Hazen Hammel@hazenhammel.bsky.social · 2mo ago

siblings reenact Christmas photo from 1963

This tracks

Randall Munroe@xkcd.com · 2mo ago

Planetary Science xkcd.com/3255/

🔭 Q for Astrosky: We got 2024 YR4 with JWST at V > 30, and think it's a new record for faintest Solar System observation. 1) What was the previous record? I've heard of but can't find an HST Halley observation. 2) Did we set the overall record? Looks like the Ultra Deep Field only went to V ~ 29?

My bonny boys: Metatron and Charlemagne in a moment of quiet comradery this evening

My daughter was in town this weekend and attended our summer band concert in Vienna, VA - she captured an image of the band while I was playing a duet with the trumpet in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “My Bonny Boy”

NASA interested in Hubble reboost if costs can be reduced As NASA prepares an attempt to reboost an astronomy spacecraft in a decaying orbit, it is open to doing something similar for Hubble, if its operating costs can be reduced....

NASA interested in Hubble reboost if costs can be reduced

As NASA prepares an attempt to reboost an astronomy spacecraft in a decaying orbit, it is open to doing something similar for Hubble, if its operating costs can be reduced.

spacenews.com