subarutelescope.org/en/news/topi... "weird protoplanety thing" I found a few years ago now part of a traveling Pokemon exhibit in Japan.

I got this wonderful spam journal request and cannot help but read it in Samuel L Jackson's voice

The case turned out to be a real nothingburger

This definitely is one of this alt universes from the TNG episode "Parallels".

www.civilbeat.org/2025/11/thir... The big question is whether they could do the permitting rapidly. OTOH, I absolutely know some Hawaiian activists currently opposed to TMT who would accept it on a recycled site (e.g. CSO?). Glad to see Gov. Green supportive of TMT. Worth exploring.

One day the universe will contain only dark energy and JWST proposals.

Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory plans to cut nearly all its research funding and reduce the number of paid science staff to just two positions next year.

Arvo Part -- still alive, and still composing as of 5 years ago -- belongs in any list of the greatest composers in recorded history. Worth mentioning alongside Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven.

Missed this at the time (busy w/shutdown stuff), but on Sept. 30 NSF dropped its appeal for the 15% indirect cost case. The AAU is now suing NSF to recoup ~330,000 in legal fees. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Knickers

ECR astro pro tip: a well maintained bibliography file *ordered alphabetically* will save you from many headaches in the future ;)

"Avi Loeb and the Mystics" ... didn't they open for Nickelback once?

much more elegant than Hubble's devouring of corn on the cob yesterday.

Encourage a student to register for the astropy workshop! 🔭 #astrocode

University of Arizona now also rejects, albeit in a very conciliatory manner. No comments about academic freedom, just concern that preferential treatment by the government would be anti-merit. 7 out of the 9 initially contacted universities have now said no. president.arizona.edu/sites/defaul...

Seeing the discourse right now in the high-contrast imaging community about the JWST oversubscription rate confirms to me that the decision to skip JWST entirely as a PI yet again was the right one. :)

Happy JWST deadline day to those who celebrate. For me, it will be the 4th cycle in a row I've blown past as a PI because of "xyzabc" yet again. I have a bunch of workable ideas: some of which I think are really interesting. Maybe Cycle 6 ... or maybe I can donate a few of these to an eager ECR

This cannot be good.

more of this is coming, I'm afraid.

Astronomers have caught a bouncing baby exoplanet feeding and growing pretty big! badastronomy.beehiiv.com/p/a-baby-pla... Note: This is for paying subbies to my newsletter, to and for whom I am very grateful. 🔭🧪

I encounter this situation periodically. Yes, the authors write the paper THEY (not you) decided to write. But the paper still has to make sense within their world: i.e. it has to be methodologically sound and the conclusions have to follow. A referee insisting on these two things is not "mean".

The Self-Driving Cars

A firm bipartisan statement to protect NASA if we go into a CR.

arxiv.org/abs/2509.08905 Our Roman Coronagraph white paper on trying Spatial Linear Dark Field Control (SLDFC) during the technology demonstration phase. This will be challenging to make work, but the payoff will be worth it. Medium-high risk, high reward. YOLO.

Excellent advice

Congrats to @joneskuma.bsky.social, co-winner of the DPS Urey Prize for early career researchers! #EPSCDPS

💯

www.abc-nins.jp/en/a-glimpse... A short little press article on our VLT/MUSE AB Aurigae result ...

I would like to advertise a new paper lead by my PhD student Danielle Bovie on characterizing the atmosphere and orbit of the HIP 99770 b planet! [accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal] arxiv.org/abs/2509.02665

exactly why I use Bluesky.

Our VLT/MUSE paper reporting the detection of AB Aur b in H-alpha spectroscopy is now published in ApJL: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

That scientists are no more moral than anyone else. And in competitive fields, there is a high likelihood to run into those who still act like they are in middle school: you may be a purist but understand others may not be. Adjust accordingly.

On the other hand, my local CVS in Texas (yes, **TEXAS**) had a big proud advertisement that "the new COVID shots are in!" So the wife & I got ours on a walk-in: no prescription, no appointment.

Happy advisor as a PhD student's first lead author paper was recently accepted for publication. Look for an atmospheric/dynamical characterization of HIP 99770 b to hit arxiv sometime mid/late next week.

And here we are ... our paper reporting the detection of the AB Aurigae b protoplanet with VLT/MUSE spectroscopy! arxiv.org/abs/2508.18351

Barring unforeseen weirdness, there should be a new AB Aurigae paper up on arxiv tonight 😀

there have been a lot of protoplanet claims over the past decade (cough,LkCa 15, cough). But yeah this one looks quite solid. And beautiful: like straight out of a simulation.

Proud supervisor moment: #LeidenObservatory graduate student Richelle van Capelleveen led one of two papers on our discovery of WISPIT 2b#LeidenObservatory a 5 Jupiter mass exoplanet clearing a path in a circumstellar disk. Laird Close and his team saw it in H-alpha, indicating gas accretion #astrodon 🔭 🧪

Today our team released findings on the nature of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, based on our first round of JWST observations. The data are incredible: Not only did we detect and map gas and dust in the coma, but we found that 3I is one of the most CO2 rich comets ever seen! Check it out:

"The composition of the coma could be due to a few different scenarios." Of course we know which answer "Harvard astronomer" prefers.

But what if it were made of BBQ spare ribs, would you eat it then??? www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQDq...

I mean, he's just asking questions ...

Sigh, this is a tough call. I already did one review for NSF with a very emphatic (positive) evaluation but have no idea what happened to it. I am really curious to see how Politburo-ish these new appointees are: that will certainly determine whether I do any panel service next year.

100% I. have. literally. said. this. exact. thing. numerous. times. to. authors. as. a. reviewer. Related: I get a little salty if authors think there is some ethereal realm of "trade secrets" that exists above peer review. If it's true, you should be willing to say it in ApJ.

Gen-X - tv rots your brain. Gen-Z - AI rots your brain.

yeah this is not good

Brilliant

and worlds have collided: Took my new PhD student from China on apt tours today ... nice leasing office person chatting w me asked me ... "so what do you think about the claim that that comet might be an alien spacecraft [is that legit or not]?" Was a good convo, @deschscoveries.bsky.social 👍