It sucks but I’m not done fighting our university administrators on this.
Vatican Observatory@vaticanobservatory.bsky.social · 4d agoKentucky’s big planetariums are gone. The stars will not again be projected on these domes.
Jennifer Johnson
@jajohnson.bsky.social
Astronomer. Fan of the Galaxy. Member of @sdssurveys.bsky.social. Periodically interested in origin of elements. Still working on triple pirouette.
Vatican Observatory@vaticanobservatory.bsky.social · 4d ago
Really excited for #DR20 today from @sdssurveys.bsky.social. Over 50,000 white dwarf spectra, with many new ones from the Southern Hemisphere!
My snake plant has a flower stalk! I didn’t know that was a thing!
A few months ago I gave a public talk about satellites at a local brewery & afterwards one of the attendees asked me if I'd like to collaborate on an OpEd to spread the word about the growing problem of space junk. Long story short, today it's on the front page of the digital WaPo: wapo.st/4yqgbLn
Opinion | Look at Earth’s orbit. This mess is dangerous.
Space debris is a safety risk, both on the Earth’s surface and in orbit.
wapo.st
New Horizons Spacecraft Wakes from Hibernation Following its longest hibernation period ever of nearly a year, the spacecraft has emerged in good health and is ready to begin transmitting science data gathered in the distant Kuiper Belt far beyond Pluto. #NewHorizons 🧪🔭
NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Wakes from Hibernation in Good Health - NASA Science
Following its longest hibernation period ever of nearly a year, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has emerged in good health and is ready to begin transmitting
science.nasa.gov
Would like a grand slam walkoff at this Columbus Clippers game #bottomof9th
Happy Black Space Week from Tokyo! 🇯🇵. My name is Caprice, I am the current VP for @blackinastro.bsky.social and I am a NASA Sagan Fellow at UCSC! I work on brown dwarf research, like to do artsy things, trying to learn how to play my banjo 🪕, and love frogs 🐸. #BSW2026 #BlackSpaceWeek
From Kaz Gary: As part of Black Space Week 2026, Astrobites is highlighting members of the Black in Astro community who will be presenting at the 248th AAS meeting starting next week! If you’ll be attending, we encourage you to check it out. ⚛️ 🔭 ☄️ 🧪 astrobites.org/2026/06/12/bia-highlights-for-aas/
Black Space Week 2026: BiA Highlights for AAS
As part of Black Space Week 2026, Astrobites is highlighting members of the Black in Astro community who will be presenting at the 248th AAS meeting starting next week! If you'll be attending, we enco...
astrobites.org
They came at Dolly. We ride at dawn.
Gabe Ortíz@tusk81.bsky.social · 2mo ago“Missouri Republicans are taking an ax to Dolly Parton’s signature initiative. The state’s decision to freeze enrollment in Parton’s Imagination Library, which offers free books to kids, comes at a perilous time for children’s literacy.” www.ms.now/opinion/doll...
Check out Venus and Jupiter in the western sky right after sunset now and for the next few days. Beautiful conjunction. Enjoyable with the unaided eye and even better with a telescope.
Holy cow! Feast your eyes a while, on this gorgeous solar spectrum by the Sol'Ex instrument (assembled by Váradi Nagy Pál). It extends to UV and IR as well as the visible band. Marvel at the F lines, the fine structure, the IR doublets and repeating lines, and the molecular bands. Wonderful! ☀️🧪⚛️🔭
Goddamn ninjas cutting onions…
Gail Simone@gailsimone.bsky.social · 2mo agoSo, a quick story. I have been at @comicpalooza.bsky.social, been swamped with long lines almost the entire weekend so far, and there was this very nice gentleman named Jin (not sure of the spelling). He came the first day and said he was bringing books the next day to get signed. 1/
Nothing promotes individual liberty quite like a state-mandated indoctrination.
Iowa lawmakers move to mandate students take Center for Intellectual Freedom classes amid low enrollment
A last minute Republican legislative push could force University of Iowa college students to take classes at the newly-created Center for Intellectual Freedom. It's exactly what a report highlighted w...
kcrg.com
Born #OnThisDay in 1900 was Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. In her doctoral thesis she concluded stars are primarily composed of hydrogen & helium, an idea dismissed by the establishment of the day. It was later described as "the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy."
President's Statement on the Reported Dismissal of the National Science Board AAS President Dara Norman issues a statement expressing concern about the reported dismissal of the National Science Board. aas.org/posts/news/2... 🔭
Today, our #SCIMaP team released an impact analysis of the White House proposed FY 2027 NIH and NSF budgets. Bottom-line: if enacted, cuts to science and medical research would lead to $35B in economic losses and 150,000 lost jobs in communities all across the US. scienceimpacts.org 🧵
It’s a good thing the semester is almost over. This has by far been the worst semester since 2020-2022 and I’m so frustrated and angry I am increasingly struggling to be the kind of understanding and accommodating professor I aspire to be.
🔭 Paper day, and it’s a big one! We have found the most metal-poor object known in the universe. It’s a star, and it comes to us from our nearby friend the Large Magellanic Cloud. Out in Nature Astronomy today: rdcu.be/fbylI
A nearly pristine star from the Large Magellanic Cloud
Nature Astronomy - A high-resolution spectroscopic analysis reveals ultralow amounts of heavy elements in the star SDSS J0715−7334. The star originates from the Large Magellanic Cloud...
rdcu.be
Ohio has seen a 58% rise in the firearm death rate for children as gun laws and prevention efforts have been loosened and overturned. It was 2.6 per 100,000 children between 2015 and 2019. It then rose to 4.1 per 100,000 children between 2020 and 2024, according to KFF.
David DeWitt@daviddewitt.bsky.social · 4mo agoA new report from Children’s Defense Fund Ohio shows firearms as a leading cause of death for children, a statistic that has been exacerbated by a lack of funding and support for gun violence prevention, the group says. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/04/02/f...
