Our AAS Education Committee report on 'The Landscape of Undergraduate Astronomy and Astrophysics Degree Requirements' is now available on arXiv: www.arxiv.org/abs/2602.03959. Please give it a read!

Some new recommendations from our AAS Working Group on Graduate Admission: aas.org/posts/news/2...

So excited to see our EVE science highlighted in Evgenya Shkolnik’s fantastic plenary at #AAS247! I’m thrilled to be proposing this mission to NASA

It’s far-infrared day at #AAS247! Come learn about how cool this part of the spectrum is and why it is critical for a multi-wavelength understanding of the universe!

Our session for the AAS Task Force on Graduate Admissions is this morning at 10am in Room 226 B #AAS247

Come join us in the session discussing our report on the landscape of undergraduate degrees in astronomy and astrophysics at #AAS247 in room 226B!

What a great birthday present today - SMEX is back on! Let’s go EVE!

Pretty excited to be part of this awesome team doing super cool science! arxiv.org/abs/2512.07695

1/ It's press day!🔭🧪 We apply a grid of time-dependent physical models to explain TRAPPIST-1 flares, predicting the X-ray & UV flux driving escape and photochemistry in planetary atmospheres, and correcting flare contamination in transit spectroscopy down to ~60 ppm: www.colorado.edu/today/2025/1...

Today is the ExoJamboree at @jhuartssciences.bsky.social and @stsci.edu - How cool is that we are such a powerhouse of exoplanet research here that we can have an awesome conference with just local people?!?!

Another wonderful article about our RZ Psc work!

This! Here's a slide pulled from my class lecture notes this semester. Comets have two clear tails - one from dust and one from ions. They point in different directions because one feels the solar wind while the other feels radiation pressure.

Nature published a research highlight on our RZ PSc exocomet paper: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Flying to Rochester today to give the colloquium. Can confirm that most of security at BWI is shut down and people aren’t happy about it 🫠

So excited that our paper is finally out! We analyzed archival TESS observations of RZ Psc and detected 24 transiting exocomets. And, Adalyn is an amazing undergrad applying for grad school this year!

Calling the Astronomy hive mind! Who is your favorite deceased astronomer that deserves to have something named after them posthumously? And why?

National Radio Astronomy Observatory: Neighboring Star’s Warped Ring Shaped by Evolving Planets public.nrao.edu/news/neighbo...

Super excited that these results are finally out! This is the highest resolution ALMA image of Fomalhaut ever, and we can learn new things about the structure of the disk and the planet that is likely shaping it. Press release here: public.nrao.edu/news/neighbo...

It's the first day of classes and I spent the weekend in the hospital with a sick little one who needed emergency surgery... Let's do this! (Also, please send coffee!)

Perfect evening for the department welcome crab feast @jhuartssciences.bsky.social! 🦀

Challenge: post your last photo taken in DC to show what a hell-hole it is.

Picture time! #HWO25

Back for another day of #HWO25 at the stunning at the @jhuartssciences.bsky.social Bloomberg Center!

Wow wow wow 🤩 It’s just amazing what we humans can do when we support scientific research and funding

Great article, @hannah-richter.bsky.social!

The report from our AAS Task Force on Graduate Admission is out! This has become a complicated problem in recent years, and is made even worse with the recent federal budget. You can read the report here: arxiv.org/abs/2505.09759

The NSF hasn't fared any better including completely eliminating postdoctoral fellowships. I was an NSF AAPF. That program is responsible for me getting to where I am now. We will lose so many early career scientists because of this. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...

The president's budget request for NSF FY26 is also out. It zeroes out the NSF astronomy & astrophysics and NSF MPS ASCEND postdoc fellowships. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...

The President's Budget Request for NASA is out - What a disaster for astrophysics! Numerous missions already in development are canceled. It is well past time for all of us to raise our voices if we value science in this country. You can find the documents here: www.nasa.gov/fy-2026-budg...

Missed this yesterday because I was on an airplane but check out this video highlighting grad student Kiana Burton’s awesome thesis work!

Great write-up about an interdisciplinary project I've been working on to apply topological data analysis (TDA) to ALMA data: www.siam.org/publications...

Excited to be at this workshop this week and talk about all of the exciting science we can do in the far-infrared!

It’s Physics Fair day at Johns Hopkins! @jhuartssciences.bsky.social

The American Astronomical Society is gravely concerned by the deep cuts to NASA science funding reported to be in the draft President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2026. Read more here: aas.org/press/aas-st... and take action now: aas.org/urge-nasa-su...

This would be catastrophic for US science. Period. arstechnica.com/space/2025/0...

"What does NASA do for us?" You might think NASA only benefits Americans in Florida or Texas. You'd be wrong. 🔭🧪 www.nasa.gov/fy-2023-econ...

Sharing the undergraduate resource guide that we produced on the AAS Education Committee: drive.google.com/file/d/10KSy...

Most important part of a proposal war room… Snacks!

Up way too early this morning to fly out to LA… Visiting JPL for the Baseline Commitment Review for EVE. Let’s go!

From a spokesperson just now: “NASA is committed to optimizing its workforce and resources in alignment with [DOGE] initiatives. As part of this effort NASA has identified and phased out $420 million in contracts that were determined to be redundant or misaligned with our core mission priorities."

I've now heard from a colleague that one of their awarded NASA grants was terminated. These grants have previously undergone peer review and work has already begun, canceling them is completely unwarranted!

Tremendous insight from Dra. Nicole Cabrera Salazar and shared by @capricephillips.bsky.social in a presentation today. 🔭🧪⚛️

Press release day! public.nrao.edu/news/small-s... We used ALMA to make the first flare frequency distribution (measures how frequently large flares occur) at millimeter wavelengths for Proxima Centauri.

Separation confirmed for SPHEREx! There is something so inspiring about watching a new mission launch - It really shows what humans are capable of when we work together towards a common goal. Funding science and NASA is so critical if we want to keep understanding our place in the universe 🚀🛰️

Looking good (so far) for the SPHEREx and PUNCH launch tonight! plus.nasa.gov/scheduled-vi...

These first two offices (OCS and OTPS) do a lot of cross-cutting strategy for NASA, coordinating and aligning science and technology approaches across the various centers and directorates. OTPS also works on national space policy and NASA's economic impacts.

NASA confirms they are closing their Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy; the Office of the Chief Scientist, and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Branch of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, along with reducing their workforce.

Well I'm hearing that the layoffs have now started happening at NASA... These are talented people who believe in the job they are doing, and firing them is absolutely NOT the way to help our country.

Ugh! As a person who takes immunosuppressive medications, I rely on vaccines to keep me safe. They work. They keep people alive. They are safe.

So great to see our awesome mission getting some coverage! EVE is a SMEX proposal to NASA that will observe in the NUV, optical, and NIR simultaneously. For the first time, we’ll be able to do multi-band photometry with a single spacecraft 🤩