Some favorite pictures from Harrison Schmitt’s visit today. See alt text for details!

Wanna hear a talk by Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt? It's being lived-streamed here at 2pm PDT. Wanna see ME do the intro and talk a (very) little bit about geology on the moon?Same place. Wanna NOT see me do the intro? Start at about 2:05pm Also viewable after the livestream. I think.

An Afternoon with Harrison Schmitt

YouTube video by Caltech Astro

youtube.com

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/...

Neptune’s inner moons and rings are exposed icy body interiors

Triton’s destructive wake exposed clay-like minerals from within ancient icy worlds, now reaccreted as Neptune’s inner moons.

science.org

This is a super cool paper (and last chapter of her PhD thesis) from my now-graduated student @import-astrory.bsky.social I would explain more but, really, the headline kind of does the job.

Neptune's Inner Moons May Be Shattered Remains of Ancient Icy Worlds

New findings from Caltech researchers suggest Neptune's smallest satellites formed from the shattered remains of an original moon system that was destroyed when Triton was captured by Neptune's gravit...

caltech.edu

Last night was the annual summer dinner and awards presentation for my research group. It was a nice dinner outside on the lawn, but the awards, of course, are the highlights. Follow along (I think the last one is the best though I am perhaps biased)

You must bring me… a shrubbery! (With a baby bobcat inside)

I was excited a couple of weeks ago to announce that my my very free revamped Science of the Solar System online class was soon to be up and running on Coursera only to realize today that they no longer all very free classes but will instead charge you $49 for the privilege.

It’s Monday and all accounts are locked down and the scam/theft appears broken up. This morning the MIL mentioned an account she had neglected to tell us about and, yup, they had tried to break in but the bank appears to have shut it down. Seriously. Talk to the people in your life about this stuff.

Mike Brown@plutokiller.com · 2w ago

Fun Saturday night trying to clean up a computer takeover/banking scam my 82-year old mother in law fell for. If you have no yet had the talk with older people in your life please do. She fell for the classic "your computer is compromised call this number" trap. The steps were comically standard:

Fun Saturday night trying to clean up a computer takeover/banking scam my 82-year old mother in law fell for. If you have no yet had the talk with older people in your life please do. She fell for the classic "your computer is compromised call this number" trap. The steps were comically standard:

Utterly adorable tiny bob cat kittens in our back yard being watched very closely by indoor cats who are Not Pleased By The Visitors

Look. I can’t condone this behavior. But can’t we all agree that planets are delicious and also ask who amongst us has not been tempted to at least take a nibble? This Star Just Ate a Planet, and It’s Not Done Yet

This Star Just Ate a Planet, and It’s Not Done Yet

nytimes.com

For approximately 3 years I have been promising to rerecord the outdated lectures in my (exceedingly free) online Science of the Solar System course. I JUST FINISHED TODAY. Give me a week or so to get it all posted. Please clap, but, better, check it out [when I post]

Happy birthday to this little bunny who is, inexplicably, 21 years old today. It is pretty hard for me to fathom.

Ok look I wasn’t **planning** to watch the World Cup in Spanish but my daughter got a Peacock subscription so she could watch Love Island this summer so here we are. Football in Spanish by day, whatever that is on that Island by night. Not sure the Islanders even get hydration breaks. Steer clear.

By a funny coincidence, 15 years ago I wrote a book review for the Wall Street Journal of a book written by the person who is going to be the president of Caltech starting next week. I can't remember what I wrote and can't read behind the paywall. Anyone have a gift link pretty please?

Book review: Strange New Worlds

Mike Brown reviews "Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life Beyond Our Solar System," by Ray Jayawardhana

wsj.com

On a bike ride on a trail above Pasadena. [Bear appears in trail.] Friends: everyone get off your bike and stand behind it and try to look large Me: [rides straight towards bear] Hey buddy, are you new? I don’t think we’ve met before. [bear ambles down the hill and mostly ignores us]

"Guide to Octavia E. Butler’s Pasadena” in honor of the sci-fi author's birthday: www.huntington.org/sites/defaul... "For all of those explorations into far-flung realms, #OctaviaEButler herself navigated her physical world as far as her feet or bus pass could carry her," @lynellgeorge.bsky.social.

Virga. Rainbow. Waxing moon. Great blue heron. Sunset clouds. A beautiful evening display in Pasadena.

Excited at our paper just out in PNAS. We used JWST to detect frozen deuterated water ("heavy water") on the moons of Uranus. There is **much more** on the moons than on Uranus itself, showing that Uranus and the moons formed from separate reservoirs of water. Fun lab work in the supplement, too.🔭🪐

Deuterated water and the formation of the satellites of Uranus | PNAS

The satellites of Uranus orbit in a low-eccentricity, equatorial plane that is tilted by 98° relative to the solar system—a geometry that mirrors U...

pnas.org

I found an old camera SD full of pictures. They were mostly this mom and her cubs hanging out in our back yard. She just wanted a nap. They just wanted to play.

The bears are just looking for a nice place to swim leave them alone ok?

Photos: A Bear Emergency Response Drill in Japan

With a recent increase in bear sightings and incidents in rural Japan, local communities are taking steps to prepare for such encounters. In the small city of Yaita, officials and residents worked tog...

theatlantic.com

For years so many people told me I was being too hard on Elon, that I was overreacting. I think about those people, the entire folder of hate mail I still get from angry men, and every tv interview where an anchor said “but the teslas!” How does it feel to be so incredibly wrong? Just curious.

I don’t buy gas much but next time I have to I am definitely going here

I am very upset that this mountain lion came all the way to Pasadena and did not stop by my house (though we did get a 2am Patch visit last night).

Popehat@kenwhite.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Living in the foothills is fun. Lots of wildlife. This kitty was found well into an urban area in Pasadena. If not friend why friend shaped?

A sweet fox cavorting in the flowers this Wednesday, thanks to John-y @john-y-cash.eurosky.social :

John-y-Cash@john-y-cash.eurosky.social · 2mo ago

Bonne journée à vous ! 🙏 Car c'est mercredi et que vous avez besoin de mignonneries ! 🦊

We have lived here 20 years and I don’t ever remember seeing a fox in the backyard. Cute little buggers.

Paaaaaatch. First good look at him this season and he has got some serious chonk going on

Speaking of pool bears we had a 2nd nighttime (real) bear visit this week. Again too dark to see; super skittish when it heard us inside. Not typical Patch behaviour. Patch is utterly unconcerned with people. Might be a younger new resident. He tried the trash, but, sorry, it was locked. Stay tuned.

Mike Brown@plutokiller.com · 3mo ago

Weird new pool bears. Can’t quite figure these ones out.

Weird new pool bears. Can’t quite figure these ones out.

We are talking about dwarf planets in class today so this seemed like the right shirt to wear for the occasion