The fantastic UK network of science and discovery centres needs your help to survive and thrive! Sign this letter urging the UKGov to stop excluding science from the financial support that is available for other museums, art galleries & theatres 🙏🧪🔭👩‍🔬🎢 👉✉️: www.sciencecentres.org.uk/openletter20...

I'm hiring at Haverford - a 2 year NASA funded postdoc to work on Galaxy Zoo with Roman Space Telescope Data: www.haverford.edu/human-resour... 👩‍🔬🔭

Need cheering up? About to go live @greshamcollege.bsky.social talking about the end of the Universe: www.youtube.com/live/8lggF50... 🔭

All eyes on comet #3I/ATLAS ☄️ Hubble & Webb have already observed this comet coming from outside our Solar System. Next up, our Mars Express, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Juice missions will turn their eyes towards it. Learn more 👉 esa.int/3IATLAS 🔭🧪

Cosmology's greatest boy band?

Anyone interested in sport? The final of the world’s oldest world championship just started. Best of 13 sets over three days #realtennis www.youtube.com/live/njh6uV8...

⏰ Start your countdown clock for the exact moment of the autumn #equinox, 19:19 (UK) 22nd Sept, when the Northern hemisphere and Southern hemisphere are equally illuminated. Today the day length in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scotland is ~the same as in 🇳🇿New Zealand 🤓🧪🔭 📷: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Ever wonder what happened to that $100 million interstellar spaceship program? Me too. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Astronomers! This year’s A level physics exams included the following question which seems dodgy to me. Anyone got a sensible answer?

🧪🔭☄️

If things look bad, it's time for a party! Delighted to invite you to join Steve Pretty, @astrokatie.com and more to celebrate The End of the Universe. Tickets are available now for what should be a night to remember at Jamboree in Kings Cross on October 10th. wegottickets.com/event/676292

BLACKBIRD

@chrislintott.bsky.social kicks off the “interstellar objects” session with an interesting discussion of how the orbits can link to potential sources of stellar populations, which gives us us context for their potential chemistry #epscdps2025 #epscdps

Trying to steal a phrase from the exoplanet people: to know the interstellar object population you need to understand the Milky Way: know thy galaxy, know thy ISO.

My periodic reminder for #astrosci #astrodon #exoplanets Early Career Researchers to please, please, please have a simple web site with your current email address on it - rationale here: kenworthy.space/advice/

Hearing about the very cool Exoclock project, which has more than 10000 amateur observations of transiting exoplanets - hugely important to keeping track of our known planet population: www.exoclock.space #EPSCDPS2025

Catching up with studies of our old friend 2024 YR4, the asteroid that briefly reached a few percent chance of hitting the Earth, before new observations came in. Still has a 4% chance of hitting the Moon in 2032; new observations expected next year and in 2028. #EPSCDPS2025

On my way to Helsinki to join the world’s planetary scientists at #EPSCDPS2025. Presenting our work on interstellar objects tomorrow. I’ve been to these meetings as press before, but this is the first time I’ve presented at one.

If you see headlines claiming NASA's found life on Mars - these are new studies of features in rocks which, if they were on Earth, look like the kind of thing caused by microorganisms. But they could very well - are most probably in fact - be caused by chemistry, not biology.

Everyone writing about Perseverance today should be asking how many of the scientists and engineers who were involved in this discovery no longer work for NASA bc of Trump.

When the third interstellar object was discovered in July, years of careful preparation helped astronomers quickly jump into action to observe our new cometary visitor from the get-go. eos.org/features/how...

📽️ Livestream announcement! We’re thrilled to announce that due to popular demand, Professor Chris Lintott’s sell-out Lovell Lecture – Interstellar Objects and Other Solar Stories – will be available to watch via livestream. 🗓️ Thursday 9 October, 19.30 - 21.00. 🎟️ ow.ly/1y1i50WRf7A #JodrellBank

Am happy to take nominations for who else we should have a grudge against, now there’s a vacancy.

This ancient Oxford University grudge has Ea-nāṣir vibes and levels of post-mortem infamy

Right, EVENT PLUGGING TIME. FIRSTLY, FREE tickets for the first of my @greshamcollege.bsky.social lectures are now available. Come here about the end of the Universe - central London or online on Sep 24th. (Will sell out, I think, so do book) www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/how...

Somehow seems right the best appreciation of In Our Time - and Bragg - is in the New Yorker. Captures the hunour if it - especially thosr abrupt intros. www.newyorker.com/culture/podc...

Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this. I hope it endures.

My dream job. Mine and about three thousand others. The program’s a joy, and what fun to get to think about a different topic each week in the company of experts.

For over 25 years, science and discovery centres have been at the heart of inspiring millions of people to explore, question, and be part of UK science and technology. But they're seriously under threat… 1/3

Lovely new 3I/ATLAS interstellar comet ☄️ observations identifying the volatiles in its coma, from the mighty JWST today: very rich in carbon dioxide! @drcordiner.bsky.social et al, ApJL submitted 🔭 🧪

Astronomers! Did we know there was a Rubin wine grape?

I note that 'alien observations' is an anagram of 'Avi Loeb's insane rot'

Always a proud moment for a supervisor: another contribution to The Shelf! Congratulations Dr Hopkins!

Is 3I/ATLAS made of cheese? Is cheese made of 3I/ATLAS? Is Avi made of cheese? Who can say?

Oxford’s Schwarzman Palace of the Humanities looking rather splendid, viewed from Green Templeton’s old observatory. Will be perfect for Crystal Maze reboot.

“A peaceful place, or so it looks from space…” New image of the home world and our companion moon, captured last month from 180 million miles out by our Psyche spacecraft on its way toward the first rendezvous with a metallic asteroid in 2029. 🧪 www.nasa.gov/missions/psy...

I'll admit, I was skeptical when they said Gemini was just like a bunch of PhDs. But I gotta admit they nailed it.

Hey @craigcalcaterra.bsky.social has it always been three outs or did people experiment in the early days?

Travel day today. Perhaps it's time for #askanastronomer? Questions about interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, the latest on early galaxies, what's in the sky, or my newly held opinions on baseball very welcome. 🔭

Accepted to ApJL 🎉🔭

This is really lovely. (Though I'm not sure the note about Nobelists quite translates to physics/astro).

@craigcalcaterra.bsky.social So I learn from your newsletter that the Twins no longer have any players, which has dampened enthusiasm for tonight. Any thing we should be looking out for?

@craigcalcaterra.bsky.social Hello from Minnesota, where I’m going to a random Twins game on Thursday. The MLB app suggests sending them a selfie so I can enter the park without showing a ticket via facial recognition. Which seems dystopian…

It’s empty.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DOG!!! The Giant Database of Dogs is a data collection project for classroom use. 6 quick questions to help students learn statistics! ALL good puppers are welcome! buff.ly/f6weaUE (please share widely!) (pics for tax, of course!)

Have you ever noticed that all of the telescopes looking for intelligent life are pointing away from Earth ???

Glad the Apollo 13 movie is getting reruns lately. This scene is even more moving today: right, Tom Hanks playing Jim Lovell; left, cameo appearance by actual Jim Lovell (1928 Mar 25 - 2025 Aug 7).

I have a complaint about Avi Loeb's latest work and I want to speak to management. medium.com/@steve.desch...