To the 800+ of you who have signed the letter of support for Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham since yesterday, I cannot thank you enough. Please continue to sign and share as much as you can. nottinghamphysics.github.io/Open_Letter/

Call for nominations: Expert Advisory Group on Future Mars Exploration (EAGME) Via UK Space Agency - www.gov.uk/government/p...

Alongside the majority of my colleagues in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham, I have received a letter telling me I am at risk of redundancy. To my physics friends - please sign this letter to help us save our amazing School nottinghamphysics.github.io/Open_Letter/

Great visit to Goddard Spaceflight Center to see the #Roman Space Telescope, before it launches to L2 later this year. I never got to see JWST, so it was special to see Roman and hear directly from the project scientist - what a privilege.

New factoid shared at a meeting here at Space Telescope: #JWST's guiding is so stable that it's like flying a laser pointer on a drone in Washington DC, and pointing it perfectly at a dime (like a UK 5p coin) in San Francisco ~4000 km away.

I just sent this letter to the Science Minister and the CEO of UKRI concerning STFC's budgets

Back in Baltimore once again, another short hop across the Atlantic for #JWST meetings. Glorious evening, with Venus shining brightly over Johns Hopkins.

The bit I love about astronomical observations is the potential to find the unexpected. This is a result that's not on my bingo card for occultation studies. A research group in Japan has found a Kuiper belt object with a tenuous atmosphere that shouldn't be there, but it is.

Apparently we have a grass painting robot... called Marcus Grassford. This is a fun birthday message, near Attenborough's childhood home (College House on campus). Think I've I've watched all his documentaries over the years, the new "Making of Life on Earth" was brilliant. le.ac.uk/news/2026/ap...

There are 15 (!) PhD positions available to join the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin mission science team. Funded through the MSCA EXODOCS doctoral network: www.exodocs.eu Apply here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/432752

Tianwen-3 Mars sample return: CNSA has selected five international and Hong Kong and Macao cooperation payloads to add to the mission, scheduled to launch in late 2028 via two Long March 5 rockets. Return to Earth with ~500g of samples in 2031.

Three (3!) #postdoc jobs supporting #BepiColombo available right now: Leicester (deadline 31/05), Imperial (10/05), and OU (24/04). Led by @drbuncen.bsky.social on behalf of UK Mercury STFC team. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRA913/r... www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRE596/r... www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRA038/r...

Three (3!) #postdoc jobs supporting #BepiColombo available right now: Leicester (deadline 31/05), Imperial (10/05), and OU (24/04). Led by @drbuncen.bsky.social on behalf of UK Mercury STFC team. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRA913/r... www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRE596/r... www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRA038/r...

Download and print your own mini poster featuring Saturn—captured by #NASAWebb! 🪐 The poster is available single- or double-sided. The double-sided version includes the image on the front and a description in both English and Spanish on the back: https://go.nasa.gov/3ODnc9z

Very best of luck to Beatriz and the whole M-MATISSE team, one of three competitors (alongside Plasma Observatory and THESEUS) for ESA's M7 launch opportunity. The team @physicsuol.bsky.social are incredibly proud of the work you've put into this ambitious mission!

Listening in to Louise Prockter updating #OPAG: plans for #Uranus are still in flux (understatement): no firm plans for plutonium power yet, but behind the scenes they're looking at how best to spend a small amount of $$ to advance the concept in FY26 (GSFC, APL, JPL have already been working on it)

"...catching a ride on a lunar construction delivery will not discover biosignatures in exoplanetary atmospheres, reveal the inner workings of the Sun or map the moons of Uranus..." "...ride-along science is a supplement, not a replacement, for dedicated science missions"- @caseydreier.bsky.social

This feels like yesterday! Three years into this incredible mission, and we've already been able to play with new data for Earth, Moon, and 3I/ATLAS. Onwards to Jupiter (via a few more loops of the inner solar system....!).

📣 ANNOUNCEMENT The Call for Europlanet Science Congress 2026 Abstracts is NOW Open! ☄️Planetary scientists are invited to submit an abstract for the #EPSC2026, which will take place in The Hague, 6–11 Sept 2026. 🗓️ Abstract deadline is 13 May 👉 bit.ly/EPSC2026abstracts

Heading to Winchester to give the Alfred Curtis lecture for @britastro.bsky.social: this is the 60th anniversary of the residential course started by Alfred, focussing on practical advice for amateur astronomy (and me, talking #pro-am collaboration and #JWST!) britastro.org/event/winche...

If you're wondering what the Artemis II astronauts will be experiencing during tomorrows reentry, I recently made this video showing the Artemis I reentry with a telemetry overlay. 🔭🧪 #Artemis Full video on YouTube: youtu.be/-QbYrs5SZ5M

As we saw in the 2026 budget request, this would be a disaster for international partnerships e.g., ESA missions in Cosmic Vision and Voyage-2050. So (just like last year) our US friends have our full-throated support in pushing back against the PBR, for the sake of all of these amazing projects.

Amateur astronomers with telescopes equipped with video cameras are requested to look for impact flashes on the Moon tonight, to coordinate with #ArtemisII observations. Details here: www.geodes.umd.edu/impactflash

The Lord Vallance/UKRI answers to @chionwurah.bsky.social's Science, Innovation and Technology select committee questions are now online ⬇️: committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Webb and Hubble join forces to share the most comprehensive view of Saturn to date 🪐 Hubble reveals subtle colour variations across the planet, while Webb senses clouds and chemicals at many different depths in the atmosphere 👉 https://esawebb.org/news/weic2606/ 🔭 🧪

I realize this is not a universally held preference, but I just want to point out that For $10 billion we could have orbiters and probes to both Uranus and Neptune, and they would likely succeed at that price tag, unlike this venture

All packed up for a road trip to catch the shadow of Jupiter's moon Kallichore for @science.esa.int JUICE mission. 🇦🇨🔭

Nonsense, but shows the plan is working.

"My flabber has never been so gasted." Peter Purves on watching two lost William Hartnell #DoctorWho and the Daleks episodes from 1965, discovered in 'ramshackle' collection - shown Wednesday at the Phoenix in #Leicester www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Any Sydney-based astronomers here? A team at Andalucia is coordinating an occultation campaign for one of Jupiter's small (2-5km) irregular moons, #Kallichore (a candidate for an #ESAJuice flyby) that'll be passing in front of a star at ~12:20UT on March 18th. opop.obspm.fr/media/data/c...

The Science, Innovation & Tech committee have written the most amazing letter to DSIT/UKRI/STFC: "What is clear is that, despite your assertions to the contrary... widespread cuts have been proposed before adequate consultation with those affected was undertaken. This is wholly unacceptable" 💪🔭⚛️🧪

From our 2026 vantage point, a 2033 launch window for Neptune feels rather close... but it's encouraging to see this ambition for an Ice Giant mission!

🔭🎢 Join our webinar today at 5pm (GMT) to learn from Dr Jenny Carter about her new ESA mission called SMILE, due to launch soon. Sign up here 👉 le.ac.uk/physics/abou... SMILE will take X-ray images of the location that the solar wind first encounters the Earth's magnetic field and of the aurora.

Uranus Cat is also a favorite. I didn’t expect to like #Uranus cat as much as some others, but here we are. #spaceArt #sciArt

"Planned cuts to physics and astronomy funding threaten to undermine a core UK government strategy to harness innovation to boost economic growth, leading researchers have warned ministers." Thanks @financialtimes.com for covering this really important story 🗞️: www.ft.com/content/a235...

Our first glimpse of comet 3I/ATLAS from Juice's science camera 😍☄️ The precious data from the mission's November observations of the interstellar comet arrived on Earth last week. Teams are now digging in to discover what they reveal. Stay tuned for updates! More 👉 www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed... 🔭 🧪

Starting this Friday, four separate #JWST programmes will be exploring physical processes in Jupiter's atmosphere and ionosphere. We're asking amateur astronomers to help provide context imaging over the next few weeks to understand how the atmosphere is changing with time. #planetaryscience

Welcome back, ya big old ball o' nuclear fire, great to see you. Would you... please... stay a while? Not sure I can go back to the endless rain... [📷 East Midlands, earlier today]

Juno is hardly an unbiased source here, NASA. “‘Guy Not As Big a Deal As He Claims,’ Says Vengeful Wife Guy Cheated On Constantly”

If you are a physics teacher in the uk, or know one, please consider signing this open letter on the impact of cuts to the funding for astronomy research: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

🔭 Miranda Revisited Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Voyager 2; Processing & License: Flickr: zelario12; Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II) apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap26020...

“… the interiors of Uranus and Neptune could have a wide range of possible structures, encompassing both water-rich and rock-rich configurations. More specifically, their calculations yield rock-to-water ratios of between 0.04-3.92 for Uranus and 0.20-1.78 for Neptune” In summary, what Emily said.

Jupiter's south pole from Juno in May 2025, observed by JIRAM in the infrared (5 microns). Looks like the pentagon of circumpolar cyclones is trying to become a hexagon again (it did this once before, in 2019, and soon returned to a pentagon, ejecting the interloper...)

🔊 Calling UK early career researches in astro, particle & nuclear physics. Please sign this open response to the proposed cuts at STFC ⚛️🧪🔭 "Protecting the UK's reputation as a science superpower requires not only investment, but continuity, confidence, and people" ✍️ ecr-openletter-stfc.github.io

The peculiar construction of #STFC, funding national labs & international projects, alongside blueskies research (read: jobs for postdocs, fellows, students...), means it lacks the flexibility to respond to rising costs & shifting priorities within a flat budget. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Climate 'fingerprints' mark human activity from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean theconversation.com/climate-fing...

You may have seen pictures, but have you ever seen video of a gigantic jet #TLE from space? Astronaut Jeanette Epps captured this incredible sequence on July 20th, 2024 for the DTU/@science.esa.int Thor-Davis experiment. 🧪🔭 youtu.be/xN2J7_rOBJY Credit: ESA/NASA/J. Epps Processing: Simeon Schmauß

Heading home after a superb week at the Les Houches Winter School for #ESAJuice. I gave lectures about Jupiter and JWST, but I learned so much from all the other lecturers, from magnetospheres, to satellites, and exoplanet connections. What a stunningly beautiful place to wake up to each morning.

I’m hiring! Looking for someone with excellent communication skills, knows Python, and wants a career enabling science by creating user-facing content for astronomers. This is a full-time, long-term position that does NOT require a PhD! recruiting2.ultipro.com/SPA1004AURA/... 🔭 Apply by Feb 21st!

Beautiful aurora seen last night during high geomagnetic activity❗ Automatic auroral recognition routine classifying All-Sky Camera images acquired at the Kevo station in Northern Finland by FMI as a demonstration product👇 🌐 swe.ssa.esa.int/fmi-federated