John Forbes
@redshiftless.bsky.social
Astronomer in Aotearoa/New Zealand at the University of Canterbury. Pusher of pixels, pens, arrays, and computer keys. www.johncforbes.com
tl;dr We found a globular cluster stellar stream candidate in another galaxy! If this holds up, this will be an important new chapter in stellar stream and dark matter research. (w/ @spacewsarah.bsky.social @jakenibauer.bsky.social and more) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Evidence for the first globular cluster stellar stream beyond the Milky Way - Nature
Deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the ultra-diffuse galaxy UGC 9050-Dw1 reveals an extragalactic globular cluster stream, with analysis and modelling probing the rich dark matter content of the h...
nature.com
"This is more than just a niche issue for astronomers. This is an issue that's going to affect the quality of life for everybody on Earth." https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/private-companies-could-ruin-the-night-sky-for-the-entire-world-and-international-law-cant-stop-them
Private companies could ruin the night sky for the entire world, and international law can't stop them
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can single-handedly approve space projects that will change the night sky around the world. The international community can do very little against it.
space.com
The Solar System ejected the vast majority of its comets and asteroids (~95%). What happens when these objects re-encounter the Solar System later? Would we mistake them for interstellar objects? That would be a bit of a headache! 🔭 🧪 🧵 1/5
Stress Stressed
Alt: Steve Carell playing Michael Scott in The Office (U.S.) massaging his forehead/eyebrows/bridge of nose, clearly in some discomfort.
static.klipy.com
Kid got his first board game for his 4th birthday (candyland) and I’ve lost 14/17 games we’ve played so far. Little does he know I’m playing the long game: a decade from now he'll love board games for reasons he doesn't understand, and I will introduce him to Alchemists
fellas is it gay to check a box and save multiple lives at no cost to yourself? 🤔
f*male b*tch 🇵🇸@ahhmandah.bsky.social · 3mo agomost organ donors are women most organ recipients are men I'm an organ donor and I would really like to be a cunt about this but I'm not enough of a cunt. yet but if you are a man and refuse to be an organ donor without a good medical reason the only thing you should be getting is a donor kebab
this right here is why New Zealand is going to lose a generation, or more, of scientific talent — and will probably also contribute to Luxon losing his job #nzpol
Dan@danxduran.bsky.social · 3mo agoI pushed to write this is as a separate story to the main China trade stuff just because I knew you guys would lap it up
Turns out the promo image is me, but I'm giving a public talk about what we can and can't see in the sky for Matariki Week in Christchurch... Monday July 6, 730 pm -- tickets are free! www.artscentre.org.nz/whats-on/pub...
Public Astronomy Lecture: Scanning The Darkest Skies
Matariki Events in Christchurch New Zealand: Bring the whole whānau for a taste of this ancient and living Māori artform. Complete with opportunities for audience participation, Ngā Toi o Te Rangi alw...
artscentre.org.nz
What do we mean by 'thick disk' and 'thin disk' when it comes to the Galactic origin of interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS? Some musings from @astrohopkins.bsky.social, @chrislintott.bsky.social, @redshiftless.bsky.social and I ☄️🔭 iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...
Interstellar Objects in the Context of the Milky Way’s Thin and Thick Disks
Interstellar Objects in the Context of the Milky Way’s Thin and Thick Disks, Hopkins, Matthew J., Lintott, Chris J., Bannister, Michele T., Forbes, John C.
iopscience.iop.org
🧪 🔭 Things like this seem necessary - otherwise the incentives are all in the direction of "send slop into the literature as fast as possible."
anil oza@aniloza.bsky.social · 4mo agowow — the preprint host, arxiv, is banning authors for a year if they submit papers with hallucinated citations 🤖
Reposting today for no reason in particular.
The Frito Bandito@thefritobanditoo.bsky.social · 7mo agoSeeing as how the Democrats will soon control both chambers of Congress, allow me to introduce you to the most based idea ever suggested in the Harvard Law Review: "Congress should admit each Washington D.C. neighborhood as its own state."
Physics bachelors programs at Bowling Green, Kent State, Ohio U, and Wright State will be eliminated! ⚛️🧪🔭
Trevon Logan@trevondlogan.bsky.social · 5mo agoIf you think legislation that targets “low enrollment degrees” only impacts the humanities please look at this list. Degrees in chemistry, math, physics, political science, data analytics, psychology and economics are being eliminated. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/04/16/o...
While the situation is grim at NIH, it's closer to catastrophic at NSF. They're just not able to move any money out the door. It appears OMB has them on lockdown. www.science.org/content/arti....
Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · 6mo agoPSA: Grant Witness (@scott-delaney.bsky.social & @noamross.net) now has NIH funding curves à la @jeremymberg.bsky.social. Perhaps Berg curves for NSF will be there soon, too?
A million new SpaceX satellites will destroy the night sky — for everyone on Earth theconversation.com/a-million-ne...
A million new SpaceX satellites will destroy the night sky — for everyone on Earth
If SpaceX launches one million new satellites, it will increase atmospheric pollution and risk of falling debris. And we will see more satellites than stars.
theconversation.com
Due to a poor choice of headphone placement, my hairstyle for much of today may best be described as the "Londo Mollari"
Technically kind of true (the best kind of true)! Of course, speaking as one such nerd, not every cubic parsec is equally interesting (and you need about 55 more 9's 👀). 🔭
Cliff Pervocracy@pervocracy.bsky.social · 6mo agoastronomy is so funny because it's this fairly niche interest for a small community of nerds and also it's 99.9999% of everything that exists
Number of photos or videos taken by my phone per day over the past 6 years.
Following extensive discussions regarding the nature of "tropical juice" over the past several days, the kid has deduced the existence of "temperate juice."
"Rocket launches already contribute to climate change and ozone depletion. Scaling them up to deploy a million aircraft-sized satellites would push upper-atmosphere heating and ozone loss far beyond previous estimates, with the steady burn-up of dead satellites compounding the impacts." 🧪🛰️🚀
A new space race could turn our atmosphere into a ‘crematorium for satellites’
Planned ‘megaconstellations’ of satellites could cause unforeseen harm to the ozone layer and climate systems. Global regulation is needed before it’s too late.
theconversation.com
New article out about what a million satellites could do to our atmosphere. It's bad. https://theconversation.com/a-new-space-race-could-turn-our-atmosphere-into-a-crematorium-for-satellites-276366
A new space race could turn our atmosphere into a ‘crematorium for satellites’
Planned ‘megaconstellations’ of satellites could cause unforeseen harm to the ozone layer and climate systems. Global regulation is needed before it’s too late.
theconversation.com
Excellent piece from @astrokiwi.bsky.social @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy & Laura Revell. This one sentence is the crux of it all 👇 "There is no public mandate for a single company in one country to make changes on that scale to the planet’s atmosphere." Highly recommended. 🔭🧪
A new space race could turn our atmosphere into a ‘crematorium for satellites’
Planned ‘megaconstellations’ of satellites could cause unforeseen harm to the ozone layer and climate systems. Global regulation is needed before it’s too late.
theconversation.com
Alerts are flowing from Rubin Observatory! There will be a proper press release in the coming hours, please see all the details then, and meanwhile, your favorite alert broker probably has public data available to peruse *now*! We are up to well over 20k alerts after 20 min on sky 🔭
NSF Update Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit. Now by Directorate... 1/11
I have student projects available for all levels! Interested in simulating star formation and interactions with the star-forming cloud? Have a look at these! I work with students to align the project to their skills, interests, and academic level. 🔭✨#Astronomy rajikalk.github.io/html_pages/s...
Student projects - Kuruwita
rajikalk.github.io
death by preventable disease is an inevitable and even desired outcome of concentration camps. in every era of concentration camps people have died of typhus, which is a disease of privation and enforced crowding. this illness is intentionally inflicted
Catherine Rampell@crampell.bsky.social · 8mo agoHorrifying. ICE confirms measles outbreak at Dilley family detention center. www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-dil...
Pleased to say that Carl Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com) will be speaking at the University of Canterbury on 13th Feb! He is hosted by @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social come see him at noon in Jack Erskine 441!
Brown dwarfs are "failed stars" - they never got enough mass to burn hydrogen in their cores, or at least not enough to supply the energy they radiate away at their surface. But what happens if you add enough mass to a brown dwarf to push it over that threshold in mass? Does it become a star? 🔭 🧪 🧵
