🧵1/9 Picture this: we’ve recently peered straight into the heart of an active galaxy 13 Mly away. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ Using the JWST, astronomers have shown that the hot dust around its supermassive black hole isn’t mostly escaping in outflows, as everyone thought for decades. science.nasa.gov/missions/web...

🧵1/9 Picture this: we’ve recently peered straight into the heart of an active galaxy 13 Mly away. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ Using the JWST, astronomers have shown that the hot dust around its supermassive black hole isn’t mostly escaping in outflows, as everyone thought for decades. science.nasa.gov/missions/web...

🧵1/10 Astronomers recently revealed a giant cosmic structure that had been hiding behind the stars and dust of our own Milky Way. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ Press release: www.sarao.ac.za/news/vela-th... #cosmology #universe #MilkyWay

STFC cuts will accelerate the closure of UK physics departments, even though everyone recognises the importance & value of physics to UK PLC. Physics is explicitly listed as an area affected by planned compulsory redundancies at Nottingham. So sad to see this. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

🧵1/10 Astronomers recently revealed a giant cosmic structure that had been hiding behind the stars and dust of our own Milky Way. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ Press release: www.sarao.ac.za/news/vela-th... #cosmology #universe #MilkyWay

The “blue bronze” exhibits extraordinary physical properties, sitting at the intersection of condensed matter physics, quantum mechanics, and wave #physics. ⚛️ 🧪 It’s as if two different “types of sound” coexist in this material: one ordinary, and one “super-sonic” carried by electric charge. 1/2

🧵 1/3 Surreal pic by Mars Express' HRSC in infrared, green & blue light. It shows Mars' South Pole in December 2012: an extra layer of frozen CO2 (dry ice) covers the permanent ice cap (the white area). science.nasa.gov/resource/mar... Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/Bill Dunford 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #planetsci

The “blue bronze” exhibits extraordinary physical properties, sitting at the intersection of condensed matter physics, quantum mechanics, and wave #physics. ⚛️ 🧪 It’s as if two different “types of sound” coexist in this material: one ordinary, and one “super-sonic” carried by electric charge. 1/2

🧵 1/3 Surreal pic by Mars Express' HRSC in infrared, green & blue light. It shows Mars' South Pole in December 2012: an extra layer of frozen CO2 (dry ice) covers the permanent ice cap (the white area). science.nasa.gov/resource/mar... Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/Bill Dunford 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #planetsci

1/2 Ever stood in a field and felt like the Earth is perfectly flat? That’s the intuition behind manifolds. They’re mathematical spaces that look completely ordinary & Euclidean up close — like a straight line or a plane — no matter how curved or wild they are on a larger scale. 🧪🔭⚛️ #histmath

🧵 12 May 1977: math genius Maryam Mirzakhani was born. The first woman ever to be awarded the prestigious Fields Medal (2014), she was one of the greatest mathematicians of her generation and won the award 🧪 #May12 #HistSci #WomenInMaths #WomenInScience #maths #WomenInStem

🧵1/5 The context of this image is the flyby of Mars and its satellite Deimos by ESA's Hera on 12 March 2025. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ Image credit: ESA's Hera mission More details here: esa.int/Space_Safety... #planetsci

1/2 Ever stood in a field and felt like the Earth is perfectly flat? That’s the intuition behind manifolds. They’re mathematical spaces that look completely ordinary & Euclidean up close — like a straight line or a plane — no matter how curved or wild they are on a larger scale. 🧪🔭⚛️ #histmath

🧵 10 May 1900: astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, an example of pure love for #science, was born. "No idea should be suppressed. … And it applies to ideas that look like nonsense. We must not forget that some of the best ideas seemed like nonsense at first." 🔭 🧪 #histsci #WomenInStem #astronomy

🧵1/5 The context of this image is the flyby of Mars and its satellite Deimos by ESA's Hera on 12 March 2025. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ Image credit: ESA's Hera mission More details here: esa.int/Space_Safety... #planetsci

Fields medalist @wtgowers.bsky.social on how large language models are improving, and the dangers this poses. "I would judge the level of the result that ChatGPT found in under two hours to be that of a perfectly reasonable chapter in a combinatorics PhD." gowers.wordpress.com/2026/05/08/a...

🧵 This breathtaking composite was obtained with data from Chandra, Hubble, Spitzer, to mark the 22nd anniversary in orbit of Hubble. The pic shows 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula. ➡️ www.nasa.gov/image-articl... Credits: NASA/CXC/PSU/STScI/JPL/L.Townsley et al. 🔭 🧪 #Hubble 1/5

1/11 🧵 On May 5, 1961, just 23 days after Gagarin’s flight, Alan Shepard launched at 9:34 a.m. EST and began his historic flight. Aboard his capsule #Freedom7, powered by a Redstone booster, he became the first American in space.🔭 ⚛️ 🧪 #histsci #Space #ProjectMercury

I'm happy to share that I've been awarded the 2026 Carl Sagan Medal! As someone who has enjoyed investing lots of time in communicating science, and as an enormous fan of the work of Dr. Sagan, this means a great deal to me. Big thank you to my colleagues! www.reading.ac.uk/news/2026/Un...

1/11 🧵 On May 5, 1961, just 23 days after Gagarin’s flight, Alan Shepard launched at 9:34 a.m. EST and began his historic flight. Aboard his capsule #Freedom7, powered by a Redstone booster, he became the first American in space.🔭 ⚛️ 🧪 #histsci #Space #ProjectMercury

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…" 🔭 Today the Force is strong with all of us. May the Fourth be with you! ✨ (Image's description, credit and source in the ALT text) #MayTheFourthBeWithYou #StarWarsDay ⚛️ 🧪

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…" 🔭 Today the Force is strong with all of us. May the Fourth be with you! ✨ (Image's description, credit and source in the ALT text) #MayTheFourthBeWithYou #StarWarsDay ⚛️ 🧪

50 years ago today, CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) circulated its first beams. ⚛️ From the groundbreaking W & Z boson discovery (Nobel 1984) to its vital role today as LHC injector and beyond-collider experiments — a wonderful journey. 🧪 Worth reading! ⤵️ #CERN #histsci #physics #science

🧵 3 May 1933: Steven Weinberg, a giant of physics, was born. "Scientists, no less than composers, have styles. If Einstein and Feynman call to mind Beethoven, Weinberg calls to mind Bach." — Frank Wilczek, from the obituary of S. Weinberg. ➡️ nature.com/articles/d41... ⚛️ 🔭 🧪 #HistSci #HistPhi

50 years ago today, CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) circulated its first beams. ⚛️ From the groundbreaking W & Z boson discovery (Nobel 1984) to its vital role today as LHC injector and beyond-collider experiments — a wonderful journey. 🧪 Worth reading! ⤵️ #CERN #histsci #physics #science

1/7 This Hubble release highlights NGC 3137, a spiral galaxy 53 Mly away in the constellation Antlia.🔭 Its relative closeness gives scientists a solid chance to follow the full cycle of star formation and death in a system much like ours. 🧪 esahubble.org/images/potm2... #extragalactic

1/7 This Hubble release highlights NGC 3137, a spiral galaxy 53 Mly away in the constellation Antlia.🔭 Its relative closeness gives scientists a solid chance to follow the full cycle of star formation and death in a system much like ours. 🧪 esahubble.org/images/potm2... #extragalactic

🧵 1/9 In a 2022 paper, scientists announced that NICER observed the merging of multimillion-degree X-ray spots on the surface of magnetar SGR 1830-0645 (SGR 1830 for short). Such merging had not been seen before for a magnetar. ➡️ nasa.gov/universe/nas... 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #galactic #stellarastro #Astronomy

🧵 1/9 In a 2022 paper, scientists announced that NICER observed the merging of multimillion-degree X-ray spots on the surface of magnetar SGR 1830-0645 (SGR 1830 for short). Such merging had not been seen before for a magnetar. ➡️ nasa.gov/universe/nas... 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #galactic #stellarastro #Astronomy

🧵 1/6 This 1999 #Hubble time-lapse of Uranus is a genuine piece of astronomy history. 🔭 For the first time in the modern era, it shows seasonal changes on a planet watched for over 200 years. Created by Erich Karkoschka from images taken 1994–1998.🧪⚛️ #histsci #Astronomy #Science #Hubble

🧵 1/6 This 1999 #Hubble time-lapse of Uranus is a genuine piece of astronomy history. 🔭 For the first time in the modern era, it shows seasonal changes on a planet watched for over 200 years. Created by Erich Karkoschka from images taken 1994–1998.🧪⚛️ #histsci #Astronomy #Science #Hubble

🧵 28 April 1906: mathematician, logician & philosopher Kurt Gödel, best known for his work on the incompleteness of axiomatic mathematical systems, was born. "Either mathematics is too big for the human mind or the human mind is more than a machine." — Kurt Gödel 🧪 #histsci #histmaths #MathsToday

🧵1/9 Recently released maps are showing “interstellar glaciers” inside the Milky Way. NASA’s SPHEREx mission has created wide IR maps of vast clouds of frozen water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide spread across hundreds of light-years. It’s mind-blowing.🔭🧪⚛️ www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/interst...

🧵 “A good teacher does not teach facts, he or she teaches enthusiasm, open-mindedness and values.” — Gian-Carlo Rota, renowned mathematician & philosopher born 27 April 1932. He was a professor of Applied Mathematics & Philosophy at MIT⤵️ 🧪 ⚛️ #histsci #histmaths #iTeachMath #mathsky #MathsToday

🧵1/9 Recently released maps are showing “interstellar glaciers” inside the Milky Way. NASA’s SPHEREx mission has created wide IR maps of vast clouds of frozen water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide spread across hundreds of light-years. It’s mind-blowing.🔭🧪⚛️ www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/interst...

🧵 26 April 1920: the great mathematician Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan passed away. "An equation means nothing to me unless it expresses a thought of God." — S. Ramanujan A biography➡️ mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/... 🧪 #histsci #histmaths #iTeachMath #mathsky #MathsToday #MTBoS

In 2026, the peak has occurred on the night between 22–23 April. Lyrids have been observed for at least 2600 years, according to Chinese records from 687 BC. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ This makes it the oldest recorded meteor shower. www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/me...

In 2026, the peak has occurred on the night between 22–23 April. Lyrids have been observed for at least 2600 years, according to Chinese records from 687 BC. 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ This makes it the oldest recorded meteor shower. www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/me...

24 April 1990: the Hubble Space Telescope, one of humanity’s greatest scientific instruments, was launched. Exactly one year later, this image of a small portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant was taken with the WFPC1 on #HST. ➡️ science.nasa.gov/asset/hubble... 🔭 🧪 #Hubble #HistSci 1/2

🧵 On 23 Apr 2025, NASA released this selection of splendid images, recently taken by #Hubble, for celebrating the space telescope’s 35 years in Earth orbit. Enjoy! ➡️ science.nasa.gov/missions/hub... Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI) 🔭 🧪 ⚛️

1/3 On Dec. 24, 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission, astronaut Bill Anders photographed Earth, giving us the iconic image dubbed Earthrise. Two years later, #EarthDay was born to honor our home planet. This image: Earthset from the Moon. Taken by Artemis II crew, April 6, 2026 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #EarthDay2026

🧵 23 April 1858: the great theoretical physicist Max K. E. L. Planck was born. "An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a measurement is the recording of Nature's answer." — Max Planck 🧪 ⚛️ #HistSci #PhysSci #MaxPlanck

2/ Planck made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his renown stands mainly on his role as originator of quantum theory (1900). A biography➡️ www.cosmos.esa.int/web/planck/m... Book suggestion➡️ 'Where Is Science Going?' by Max Planck. 🧪 ⚛️ #HistSci #PhysSci #MaxPlanck

3/3 The Nobel Prize in Physics 1918 was awarded to Max Planck "in recognition of the services he rendered to the advancement of Physics by his discovery of energy quanta". He received his Nobel Prize one year later. ➡️ www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physi... 🧪 ⚛️ #HistSci #PhysSci #MaxPlanck

Science is good. We should fund it.

science, formed when the universe was about 10% of its current age (look-back time of 12.6 billion years). So let me introduce you to #J1204-0021 (z=5.09) - a desperately small red smudge of photons that have travelled a long way to get to my garden. 3/3 #astrophotography 🔭 @callump.bsky.social

1/3 On Dec. 24, 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission, astronaut Bill Anders photographed Earth, giving us the iconic image dubbed Earthrise. Two years later, #EarthDay was born to honor our home planet. This image: Earthset from the Moon. Taken by Artemis II crew, April 6, 2026 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #EarthDay2026

1/4 This fresh #Hubble image of the Trifid Nebula is something else. 🔭 Feels like diving into an underwater world but out in space. 🧪⚛️ We're looking at 5000 light years away where baby stars are flinging jets and messing with the gas clouds all around them. #space #Astronomy #universe

1/4 This fresh #Hubble image of the Trifid Nebula is something else. 🔭 Feels like diving into an underwater world but out in space. 🧪⚛️ We're looking at 5000 light years away where baby stars are flinging jets and messing with the gas clouds all around them. #space #Astronomy #universe

🧵1/5 Ever get that weirdly satisfying feeling when something finally goes way past its original plan? Well, #NewHorizons just did exactly that. After 20+ years since launch, it's now farther from Pluto than it was back in 2006. Really wild when you think about it.🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #Space