Astronomers: I'm having trouble installing the SPARCL-client. Is this a known problem?

New paper's out! First result from excellent DPhil student Brian Rogers - machine learning for scientific discovery. (I'll post a thread explaining in a bit). arxiv.org/abs/2511.09433

Opening of Star Trek Voyager's 'Death Wish': CHAKOTAY: Its trajectory is erratic, & our sensors aren't detecting any stellar or planetary gravitational fields that could account for its motion JANEWAY: Then you're saying it isn't a comet CHAKOTAY: And yet it looks, feels, & tastes just like a comet

Get outside into a dark place if you can tonight - no guarantees, but a possible brilliant display of the northern lights.

Sky at Night always used to have an early repeat - and we're back, with our collaboration with the Curious Cases team on at 7pm tomorrow on BBC4. Please watch if you possibly can - support your local science program! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Londoners! Drink excellent wine and chat with me about space, next week: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cosmology-...

I wonder if the @jodrellbank.bsky.social gift shop sells socks.

I will need £1 for the socks.

And here's this morning's 3I/ATLAS image from Italy ☄️ www.virtualtelescope.eu/2025/11/11/i...

Here is a great review from @leebillings.bsky.social on the actual science around 3I/Atlas. It seems like lots of folks won't care about this amazing object unless it turns out to be aliens - which it won't (though I'd be psyched too be wrong). www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

Hey look it's a @vrubinobs.bsky.social difference imaging zooniverse game! Help us classify real vs bogus detections with REAL RUBIN DATA! www.zooniverse.org/projects/ebe...

If you don’t do research you’re not an observatory, you’re a tourist attraction. Solidarity to the excellent astronomers at Lowell.

🔭

New image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS by M. Jäger, G. Rhemann & E. Prosperi. Avi Loeb's: "Is the network of jets associated with pockets of ice on the surface of a natural cometary nucleus or are they coming from a set of jet thrusters used for navigation of a spacecraft? We do not know."

This might be of interest to a few people The Boring Fund: Small (£200) grants to UK non-profits, charities and voluntary groups who just need a bit of help to pay for boring running costs like web hosting, admin, insurance etc Apply by 30 November www.christinapoultoncreative.co.uk/boring-fund

Congratulations to whoever in the Oxford University IT services team named the servers which connect our buildings to the network: 'Front Doors'....or FroDo for short.

These will go quickly - if you can join me on 3rd Dec in London, then grab a free ticket quickly.

🚀 In-person tickets now open: From Mars with Love - 50 years of exploring the Red Planet 🌌 🎟️ gres.hm/mars-love Join Prof @chrislintott.bsky.social to uncover how #Mars evolved from barren desert to a world that may once have hosted life... @oxfordphysics.bsky.social #astronomy

Explaining to undergraduate students: "as you can see it's basically spherical"....

New paper day - looking at the rotation rates of bars in galaxies in different environments. Work by the awesome Natalia Puczek, who did her MPhys project with Becky Smethurst. arxiv.org/abs/2511.02054

Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching

Open Sesame! The ELT doors have moved for the first time. This was no small feat, as each door will weigh 650 tonnes once completed. The ELT dome & its doors will guard the telescope from the harsh conditions of the Atacama Desert. https://www.eso.org/public/videos/potw2544a/ 🔭 🧪 📹 ESO/ACe

Poem, "Jumping Spiders Can See the Moon" (c) constance lee menefee

On a bus back to Oxford after a great time talking at Wantage Literary Festival. Anyone want to #askanastronomer anything? 🔭

I have just received from Kevin Walsh of SWRI a re-analysis of the PUNCH data for 3I/ATLAS, & have redone our gas and dust coma prediction models as a result. These new data agree well with the independent reductions of Thomas Lehmann and bode well for the Juice observations starting November 2nd.

Have spent a substantial portion of the day turning down requests to comment to the media on Loeb's claims that 3I/ATLAS might be artificial. What was a really interesting science story has been ruined by one man ignorantly shouting. So frustrating.

Our interstellar comet has reappeared from behind the Sun! (I note there’s no sign of it having fired any engines while hidden from us….)

Construction of the 40-m China-Argentina Radio Telescope (CART) has halted, when already 90% complete. The facility is caught up in Argentine president Javier Milei's attempt to secure an economic aid package from the US, which objects to China's involvement. 🔭 www.science.org/content/arti...

I hadn't realised that the @bodleian.ox.ac.uk had digitised their copy of Hevelius' Selenographia - the first really good lunar atlas, from 1647. You can find it here: digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/42bf...

The wine’s changed, but this is still the best label.

We will have no more complaints about how long cricket matches take.

In science we joke about questioners after a talk starting with ‘This is a question not a comment.’ I’m at a social science event and someone just started with ‘If I can be faux-naïve…’

A few upcoming events to plug - I'm at the Wantage Literary festival on Saturday (wantageliteraryfestival.co.uk/saturday-1-n...), and have a couple of Universe of Music (fun astronomy/shells/jazz chats) in Corsham (poundarts.org.uk/whats-on/lin...) &#Cambridge (www.junction.co.uk/events/linto...)

This is a Pixar movie. The little moon (Sabrina Carpenter) comes in to work-shadow the veteran actual moon (Meryl Streep). Streep is grumpy about it for the film’s first thirty mins. But by the end they’re inseparable and when 2083 comes we cry. While also learning about the need to let someone go.

In Oxford and love astronomy? Join me on Oct 29th, as I speak with @chrislintott.bsky.social about celestial bodies and citizen science. All part of Hevelius Days in the @bodleian.ox.ac.uk. Free event, but booking is essential: visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/oct25/... 🧪🔭

A thread mostly for astronomers, who have just submitted several thousand proposals to use the marvellous #JWST - the vast majority of which are marvellous and which are about to be rejected as the telescope is hugely oversubscribed. 🔭

A request for weather interested volunteers! Met Eireann would like to rescue millions of weather observations taken in Ireland over many decades that are still stuck on paper. #WeatherRescue Anyone can help: www.zooniverse.org/projects/met...

Cosmologists! We have a faculty job going here in Oxford - happy to answer questions. Brief version is that this remains a great & collaborative place to do science and the students are superb. 🔭 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOP628/a...

“Thank you for coming to the weirdest night in London,” said @chrislintott.bsky.social - a wake for the end of the universe, with @astrokatie.com channeling Carl Sagan and a New Orleans send off ❤️

Last call to join us tomorrow for our celebration of the end of the Universe! Come party while there’s still a chance wegottickets.com/event/676292

Prof. Gurdon was Master at Magdalene when I was an undergraduate. I remember trying to make small talk while he had students over (generously) for Sunday lunch. But I also remember him making a magnificent job of introducing Nelson Mandela, who was being made an honorary fellow of the college..(1/n)

@chrislintott.bsky.social Got it!

See that small, moving splotch? That's 3I/ATLAS, a comet that formed in a different star system, photographed from Mars orbit by the ESA Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter. A comet from a DIFFERENT SOLAR SYSTEM photographed by a ROBOT ORBITING MARS last Friday

🇬🇧 London friends! I will be in town later this week for a cool public event with @chrislintott.bsky.social (wegottickets.com/event/676292) and will be hanging out a few days. Come to the event and say hi if you can!

I do like a strong statement at the start of a talk. @exodransfield.bsky.social at the Oxford colloquium.

London! Next Friday! The Universe WILL end in the company of @astrokatie.com, Steve Pretty, many musicians and myself. Do please come join us wegottickets.com/event/676292

This will be great - now to try and raise the money! It could be a front-door for #Oxford, right on the Broad.

If you happen to be in London on October 10th, this will be a great time!

This is, incidentally, also true in physics

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...