Speaker Johnson kicked me out of his office. Here's why.

Rep. Yassamin Ansari has set up a table and this sign outside Speaker Johnson’s office.

Seems like a good time for the Speaker of the House to swear in Rep. Grijalva.

this is how i will remember dick cheney.

3I/ATLAS has both Ni and Fe vapor, like 2I/Borisov and dozens of solar system comets. These are probably from carbonyls formed when metal reacts with ice, and seems pretty universal. Its 3I/ATLAS’s hyperbolic orbit that tells us it formed in another star system.

(9/9)This article details the administration’s ongoing destruction of NASA science. Here Press Secretary Bethany Stevens clearly violates the Hatch Act, as Acting Administrator Duffy has done. If they’re not held accountable, NASA’s integrity may never be restored. www.space.com/space-explor...

I love how Rep. Joe Neguse reframed this question.

🧵 On 17 May 1902, Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais sifted through some artifacts from a shipwreck at Antikythera. A 2,000-year-old corroded chunk of metal turned out to be part of the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient analog astronomical computer. Image by Logg Tand 🔭 🧪 #HistSci #Science 1/5

If he racked up a Nobel Prize then Al Gore invented the Internet. (Except Al Gore actually did take the initiative in advancing programs that created the Internet.)

Change one letter, ruin a candy. Maby Ruth

Just want to point out I *presciently* compared Avi Loeb to Nostradamus two months ago, wishing he would make just *one* prediction he could be simply wrong about. Instead he makes vague, even contradictory statements then later claims, See? I was right! medium.com/@steve.desch...

Absolutely! retraction should be reserved for very big mistakes that referees should have caught but didn’t, or cases of fraud. Retraction has a stigma, and should not be used routinely. Making an example of a paper without such errors—from a decade and a half ago!—is confusing and petty.

Another great article by Booman. I'd like to believe the resistance here is stronger than 1930s Germany, but I fear we're not sufficiently rising to the occasion. We should heed the three lessons at the end.

Mine for @skyandtelescope.bsky.social From #EPSCDPS2025

Great report about what we at RealIce are doing to research ways to slow down climate change in the arctic, to buy some time as decarbonization efforts to continue to accelerate.

40+ glaciologists just published a paper calling geoengineering to save the Arctic & Antarctic a dangerous distraction. But other scientists argue that with ice melting we at least need to research them. My report about a sea ice thickening experiment in Nunavut, on CBC www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

We’re pissed off in Phoenix too!

Just because the US government is shut down, it doesn't mean your voice is. Contact your representatives and tell them what NASA science means to you. Your voice will help to inspire the generations that come after us. Learn more here: www.planetary.org/save-nasa-sc... @planetarysociety.bsky.social

everything is terrible so here's the Muppets channeling Hamilton and bringing me untold joy (via the brilliant brettevansmafrog on insta)

🎵 They did the Monster Slash 😭 @ellecordova.bsky.social

Don't miss Mars Attacks! at 7 PM MST on Wednesday at Tempe's Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill! Prior to the film, join us for a discussion with @deschscoveries.bsky.social, a Professor of Astrophysics in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. 🔗 www.majesticphx.com/movie/Histor...

The Tracing Rocky Exoplanet Compositions (TREC) workshop "Under the Atmospheric Hood: How Geochemical Cycles Affect Exoplanet Biosignatures" will be held at ASU in Tempe, AZ Jan. 12–14 (after the AAS meeting in Phoenix). Applications close 10/15 trec-nexss.org/workshop See the thread for more info!

Get ready for a night of Martian madness for the third showing of our History of the Future film series, "Mars Attacks!" Grab tickets from Majestic Theaters and dive into this stellar cult classic with @deschscoveries.bsky.social on Wednesday, October 8, at 7 PM! www.majesticphx.com/movie/Histor...

To be precise, I think it’s extortion. You know, like the Mafia does.

Happy birthday to astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979), a trailblazer for women in #astronomy who discovered that hydrogen & helium are the most common elements in the universe.⁠ 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬🎢🔭 ⁠ Born England, she won a scholarship to Newnham College at Cambridge in 1919 where she heard 🧵1/n

Technologically advance a band: Huey Lewis and the Aggregator Website.

🧵 WD 1647+375, a white dwarf just 260 ly away, is "snacking" on the remnants of a Pluto-like body from an alien Kuiper Belt. Using Hubble's ultraviolet spectroscopy, an international team has revealed the chemical composition of this cosmic object, ➡️ warwick.ac.uk/news/pressre... 🔭 🧪 #science

We’re all coping in our own ways.

Great question! I’m on the paper and we debate in it whether it’s an exopluto from the same system or an interloper. But it certainly is encouraging to see hints of nitrogen ices in other systems, makes out case for ‘Oumuamua more likely.

Does Ross Douthat Fully Understand Where the Left is Heading? The New York Times columnist has his finger on the pulse of the left, but doesn't understand the consequences.

If you see this, quote with the energy you bring to Bluesky

A study arguing against polar geoengineering like microspheres & seabed curtains got a lot of press. But a commentary in the same issue says geoengineering could help avoid tipping pts. Geoengineering is coming—& it's sparking a "civil war" in polar science www.scientificamerican.com/article/pola...

Rest in Peace, Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman. She was targeted and assassinated on June 14, 2025 between 2 am and 3:35 am CDT in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Vance Boelter was targeting 70+ Democrats at the time of the incident.

I know nothing about astrophysics but I do know that Avi Loeb has been getting all the tv interviews on Atlas and implying it's aliens, which frankly makes him no better than Graham Hancock. Scholars need to get him deplatformed before he harms the discipline

Sorry it took me so long to grade your August 20 assignment, Avi Loeb. Are you sure you're ready for a class on comets? You might need to learn about things like bow shocks and chemistry.

The article is a masterpiece of irony and scientific rigor. It humorously debunks the claims of the Harvard astronomer and his collaborators regarding alien research, defending the scientific method and NASA's prioritization processes. A must-read for those who love true #science. 🔭 🧪

I haven’t seen it suggested, but could 3I/ATLAS’s carbon chain depletion and CO2 enrichment both be due to >7 Gyr of cosmic rays irradiating the ice, C + 2 H2O -> CO2 + 2 H2, a la Mennella et al. 2004?

Yes, I love that two non-US sports psychologists conclude that US science funding is rigged so that the guy quoted unfailingly by every outlet—not because of scientific merit but because of the Harvard label—can’t get a hearing. That and more is why I wrote this: medium.com/@steve.desch...

🧵 This image refers to a STEVE, or Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. It is an atmospheric optical phenomenon, different from auroras, appearing generally as a purple and green light ribbon in the sky. ➡️ apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap21050... Image Credit: MaryBeth Kiczenski 🔭 🧪 ⚛️ #science

It’s underappreciated that 3I/ATLAS was discovered far from the Sun before a lot of comety things would start, yet immediately was heavily scrutinized. Also its orbit so far has kept its tail pointed away from Earth but now that’s changing. Anyway, quoting Chandler, could it BE more a comet?

📌

Lost script found. medium.com/@steve.desch...

The SPHEREx/JWST discoveries of CO2 gas are the nail in the coffin: this is a comet. It’s like right in face and he’s closing his eyes and loudly singing lalala! The Ni vapor without Fe vapor is interesting. We only discovered 5 years ago that comets emit Fe and Ni at low temps (new UV spectrometer)

I can feel no sense of measure.

Inside the Bold Geoengineering Work to Refreeze the Arctic’s Disappearing Ice Researchers are trying to rebuild sea ice above the Arctic Circle so it can reflect the sun’s warming rays, slowing climate change www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-...

weyWHAT An unexpected occultation discovery of a potential 2nd moon or 3rd ring arc around dwarf planet Quaoar! The new moon/ring is 30±2 km wide and seems to be 5757 km from Quaoar—suspiciously close to 7:2 orbital resonance with Quaoar's big moon Weywot! iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... ☄️

Thanks, but I’m just a fan of the music. Did you know if you read Loeb’s 3I/ATLAS articles backwards, you can hear him predict the emission from Nickel?

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