So in the month of May I had my bachelorette party, defended my PhD thesis, graduated, went to the UK for two weeks for a family wedding, and watched my team win the premier league. I’ll get back to science soon, I’m just…processing 😅

PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS BABYYYY!!! And I’m actually in London for it this is the best month ever 🤯❤️🤍❤️

Today I officially graduated with a PhD in astrophysics 🤯 Feeling very proud and very grateful

Don’t mind me just obsessing over my grad photos 🤩 getting a PhD in astrophysics has never felt so glamorous ✨

Little update to my bio…today I defended my PhD in astrophysics and I’m officially Dr. Skylar!!!!

Y’all I want to talk about all the new Artemis images that just dropped but I am defending my PhD tomorrow so that’s gonna have to wait 😅

5 years of work and a 240 page astrophysics PhD dissertation explained in two minutes 😳: 🧪🔭

Not all galaxies wander space alone...and sometimes they're too close for comfort 😬 Galaxies can interact, collide, and merge. By studying snapshots of these interactions, scientists can gain insight into how galaxies evolve over billions of years⏳

If you’re wondering what the big concerns are for astronomy from the White House budget request and what you can do about it, check out this article!!!

AHHHHH I just sent my PhD dissertation draft to my committee!! My defense is in exactly two weeks, it’s really happening!!!!!

Currently planning for my PhD defense, graduation, sister’s wedding, international move, new job, and my own wedding. All amazing things but I am incredibly overwhelmed 🫠 send help

A week since splashdown and I’m thinking a lot about the motivations and legacy of Artemis II…🧪🔭

Seeing this was the 273719th time I cried happy tears this mission 🥹

Guys I’m so emotional that they splashed down safely and successfully 😭 welcome home you amazing brave humans!!! 🔭🧪

Peekaboo Obsessed with how cute our planet is in this picture, taken by the Artemis II astronauts as it sets behind the moon 📸: NASA 🔭🧪

Happy splashdown day!!!! The Artemis II astronauts are coming home and as always you can watch it happen live on NASA’s YouTube

Alrighty so NASA (and me and a lot of other people) had a little goof. But I think it’s a great opportunity to remind people that sometimes mistakes can actually be pretty cool and lead to a lot of new perspectives and understanding! 🧪🔭

Holy sh*t. A solar eclipse, seen for the first time by human eyes during a lunar flyby. The Earthlight illuminating the crescent of the moon and part of the spacecraft, the stars and planets in the background…I’m in tears 🤯 📸: NASA 🔭🧪

Don’t mistake my excitement about Artemis as apathy towards what’s happening here on Earth. The behavior of the president is terrifying and despicable, literally threatening war crimes and crimes against humanity on social media.

I’m seeing this picture going around today being dropped in with the other amazing Artemis II shots, but this is not an Artemis photo!!!! This was taken by the DSCOVR satellite in 2015, from a distance of a million miles from Earth. 🧪🔭 (1/3) 📸: NASA, NOAA

Let’s talk about the iconic new images from Artemis II…and why they look a bit different from Apollo 8’s Earthrise!

Hey if you see “pictures from Artemis” and you can’t find them on NASA’s website THEY ARE NOT REAL

I am begging you: take a couple minutes and look at the images from yesterday’s lunar flyby. They are absolutely incredible www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna...

Oh my god this almost doesn’t look real 🤯 this is a solar eclipse-the moon blocking the sun-as seen by the crew on Artemis II during their lunar flyby yesterday. The haze is the sun’s atmosphere, only visible during eclipses. The illumination on the left of the moon is coming from Earth!!! 🧪🔭📸:NASA

Earth set and Earth rise from Artemis II. Views of our home humans haven’t seen since 1972. A generation defining moment. I just woke up and I am sobbing 🧪🔭 📸: NASA

This is the perfect video for this moment

I really appreciated this video by Kihana Wilson (who is not on Bluesky, alas) about the mixed feelings of #Artemis II. Follow her on Instagram (www.instagram.com/the_astro_st...) if you're over there!

The first image we get after comms come back is us. All of humanity is in this shot. And I’m crying again. 🧪🔭 📸: NASA, annotations by me

From #ArtemisII right before they lost signal going behind the moon: “As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there, on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the moon.” Godspeed Artemis 🫡 ❤️ 🔭🧪

Just announced that at closest approach #ArtemisII crew will be 4,067 miles above the moon, and max distance from Earth will be 252,756 miles. The crew did request these values in kilometers and parsecs but they didn’t get them so neither will you 😂🔭🧪

“There is so much magic in the terminator” -Victor Glover 🥺 📸: NASA (screenshot from Artemis livestream two minutes ago)🔭🧪

“Something that’s really awesome up here…We now have the moon and the earth in window 3 simultaneously. The moon is a gibbous and the earth is a crescent, and I’m guessing in about 45 minutes we’ll have two identical crescents as we change our position in the universe” - #ArtemisII crew 🔭🧪

If you’re watching the #Artemis II livestream you’re probably hearing the word “albedo” a lot, but what does it mean? It’s simply a measure of how reflective a surface is. If a surface absorbs all incoming radiation it has an albedo of 0, if it reflects all of it albedo is 1 (1/n) 🧪🔭

🔭🧪Just heard on the Artemis livestream: “We just realized we have…Earth out window 4 and Moon out window 3 and it just gives you the best idea of scale we’ve had yet…” -Reid Wiseman “Amaze amaze amaze” -Mission control 👎🥹

What my day looks like: watching humanity travel farther from Earth than ever before on one screen and wrapping up my PhD dissertation work on the other ☺️🧪🔭

The Artemis II crew just officially passed the Apollo 13 distance record…they are the furthest from Earth any human has ever been! 🤯 🧪🔭

A bit of a personal announcement amid all the Artemis excitement…as of today I am one month away from defending my PhD so allow me to share what I’m doing next! 👀 (1/4)🔭🧪

Can you image what it would be like to go from the first image to the second? To literally watch your home planet shrinking behind you until most of what you see is the emptiness of space? For every minute to further hammer in our insignificance against the vastness of the cosmos? (1/2)🧪🔭

whERe aRe thE vIDeoS? Y’all you can literally go watch a livestream of the astronauts just chilling up there right now we are SPOILED for content it’s so much fun

I highly recommend putting this NASA #Artemis II mission livestream on and just leaving it playing as you go about your weekend. Live views of the spacecraft, occasional visualizations of the current config, views of the control room, space-ground radio audio. www.youtube.com/live/m3kR2KK...

NASA just dropped this image of Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch looking back at us. The first woman to ever see our planet in its entirety. I’m not crying you’re crying 🥹🔭🧪 📸: NASA

The President's Budget Request proposes a 47% cut to NASA Science, a 55% cut to NSF, and a 13% cut to the DOE Office of Science. AAS President Dr. Dara Norman sent a call to action to AAS members via email today. Urge your members of Congress to reject these cuts now! aas.org/reject-2027-...

Atlas says stop doomscrolling comments from idiots saying Artemis II images are fake or boring. Remember that most people are excited about this and believe in science! Hold on to your wonder! Protect your awe! Atlas commands it!!!

A reminder that the Artemis missions are fully built on international collaboration in huge ways. This is not just the US going to the moon!

On a completely non-Artemis, non-April Fools related work check out this coverage we did of an AAS survey of undergraduate astronomy programs! There’s some really interesting stuff in there… 🧪🔭

My thoughts and feelings post launch…a bit much to type out so you get to see the emotions right on my face 🥹🔭🧪

Raise your hand if you cried watching the launch ✋

Why is it a big deal that there’s more diversity in the Artemis II crew? Because this is what everyone who has gone to the moon up to this point looks like: 🔭🧪

There’s some discourse around how we define “going to the moon” which I think is valuable, we want to be careful in our language. People have differing opinions but I think for me, the reason I’m cool with saying “going” even though it’s not a landing is thinking about the astronauts’ perspective.

If you’re having problems conceptualizing why going to the moon is such a big deal, here’s your reminder that you can fit every planet in the solar system in between the Earth and the moon. The Artemis II astronauts are going so insanely far compared to anyone else in my lifetime 🔭🧪