Many things to say about X-ray astronomy right now but one quick comment on the quote unquote "smallness" of its community relative to optical astronomy: Optical astronomy is >>6,000 years old, X-ray astronomy is 60 years old. The size of a community is also a function of its age. (1/n)...

Looking forward to hosting @ohdearz.bsky.social at the CfA for her colloquium tomorrow!

I watched the defense today and it was the most fun I’ve had listening to someone talk about baryons in an astrophysical context, maybe ever! Congrats to Dr. Omoruyi 🔭🧪

Not a lot of great news these days. But celebrating *Dr.* Osase Omoruyi yesterday was a bright light. Being lucky enough to advise her has been the highlight of my career. Congratulations, Dr. Omoruyi!

@scibry.bsky.social found this at the CfA when I removed and old nameplate in front of it and felt like Indiana Jones

My god this one is incredible

if you know you know

Another Elsevier paper with obvious AI-written text. “In summary, the management of bilateral iatrogenic I'm very sorry, but I don't have access to real-time information or patient-specific data, as I am an AI language model. “

Join us starting at 3:40 for the LAST TWO PLENARIES of what is officially the largest single gathering of the astronomical community in history. They’re going to be incredible. 👀👀 #AAS245

A truly transformative mission, one of the most impactful, one that punched far above its cost class, one that will be remembered as a huge milestone in the history of astronomy. Congratulations and ❤️❤️ to the whole @esa.int Gaia team. #AAS245

The legendary - the *LEGENDARY* - Neta Bahcall is on the stage right now, delivering her lecture for the Society’s highest honor. She’s currently talking about how she was hired as a postdoc by Lyman Spitzer 🤯 #AAS245

It's too early for this level of astronomy feels 🥹 as usual the #aas245 plenary speakers are hitting it out of the park

#AAS245 there is an official AAS Bird in the plenary hall. I hear its name is Birdy McBirdface. Birdy is friendly to astronomers and brings good luck if it lands on you. 😎🕊️

Skywatching alert: On Monday evening US time (the 13th), Mars will temporarily slip behind the Moon. Check out the details near the end of this Bob King article:

Hey #astronomers headed to #AAS245: Congressman Glenn Ivey will be giving remarks at the @aasoffice.bsky.social booth Monday at 9:20am. Let’s show up and give him a sense of how much we care about policy and legislation! Please share and spread the word 🙏🏻

The CSMA is proud to sponsor a #aas245 special session on the results of the Astronomy Poverty Survey. The panel will report astonishing findings (like the poster below) from the survey's >1000 respondents and describe next steps. The session is Tuesday, Jan 14, at 10am! 🔭🧪 See you there!

We are SO excited and grateful to welcome Rep. Glenn Ivey to #AAS245. Please join the Congressman in the Exhibit Hall tomorrow (Monday) at 9:20 am for his remarks. Rep Ivey will also be meeting with students and many of our friends including @blackinastro.bsky.social Welcome, Rep. Ivey! 🔭

#AAS245 with 3654 attendees as of this afternoon, this is the largest AAS meeting ever, beating the previous record set by Honolulu in 2020.

It’s day one of #AAS245 and our Vice President @dawngelino.bsky.social is already wielding a 12 inch butcher knife. Doesn’t bode well for the week. 😬

Really helpful compilation of GoFundMes, thanks Julia

#AAS245 another way to help: 🔭

Folks, a huge number of people at JPL have been affected by the LA wildfires, with many losing their homes. If you can, consider contributing to a fund that's been set up to help them: (Link looks sketch but site is legit) caltech.imodules.com/controls/ema...

On way to #AAS245 with a lot of heartbreak for our friends in LA. Looking forward to figuring out how the Astro community can best support them. Meanwhile we have this fundraiser and are working w/ NASA + Caltech/Carnegie friends on how best to distribute. 🔭 www.gofundme.com/f/support-na...

The skies above Paranal are at risk from a proposed industrial megaproject.  This would be located in the vicinity of ESO's Observatory. If constructed, it would irreparably impact astronomical observations. Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2501/ 🔭  📷 ESO/P. Horálek

The @aasoffice.bsky.social will issue full registration refunds for all of our colleagues impacted by the devastating fires in CA. If you are an #AAS245 registrant and in CA standby for an email on how to request your registration. We at the AAS are heartbroken for you and ready to support.

I have now heard from three friends at JPL who lost their homes this morning. Beyond devastated and heartbroken for them. Want to help however possible (gofundme?). A group is starting to collect info so stay tuned for ways to help.

Countdown to #AAS245! Whether you're attending, speaking, exhibiting, or sponsoring — we've created a variety of social-media-friendly graphics to help you promote your attendance. We've also written some posts to help you get started. aas.org/meetings/aas... 🔭

A low-stakes joy of the year has been discovering that the favorite-of-my-life book, One Hundred Years of Solitude, has been adapted into a 16 part Netflix adaption that is ... exquisite? Sublime? This was supposed to be an unfilmable book but it's just beautifully done.

Don't forget to register yourself and your students for this winter's @astropy.org workshop at AAS 245! We can't wait to see you there. 🧪🔭

This, from my dear friend (and recent @aasoffice.bsky.social President) @profkelsey.bsky.social is a beautiful, profound, moving read. An extraordinary meditation on our connection to the cosmos and the biggest questions that animate us. Highly recommend read (and gift!).

Welcome to our new followers! We've created an AAS starter pack for you. 🔭

JAXA Press Briefing today at 2pm JST on the latest from the X-ray telescope, XRISM, that was launched last September 🔭🛰️! I expect it will be... entirely in Japanese... but there'll be an English web release on the ISAS website hopefully around the same time ⭐

The American Astronomical Society is delighted to announce that the Astropy Project, and all contributors to it, will receive the 2025 Berkeley Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy. Astropy will deliver the honorary closing Plenary of #AAS245. PRESS RELEASE: aas.org/press/astrop...

Tonight, 6:30pm Eastern! Nobel Prize-winner John Mather and NASA Astrophysics Division Director Mark Clampin, "The Next Great Space Telescope: Lessons for Success in the Search for Life Outside the Solar System." Access the livestream here: www.aip.org/history-prog...

🤩🤩🤩 our dear friend @janerigby.bsky.social will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom!!! www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...

Chandra, the space-based observatory that brings us incredible x-ray images of the most extreme environments in the cosmos, is at risk of cancellation. It’ll be a huge loss to astronomy if the mission ends prematurely for budget reasons. Go to www.savechandra.org to find out how to help #SaveChandra

@profkelsey.bsky.social did you get my $3.5K venmo transfer? Haven't heard back so just checking

Please nominate Plenary Speakers for future AAS Meetings! The Vice Presidents always consult this form on a rolling basis, we keep all existing nominations from prior years, and we take it super seriously! It's easy and quick: aas.org/form/plenary...

With support from the AAS, Astronomy on Tap will host what is likely to be their biggest event *ever* during #AAS243 in New Orleans. Tuesday night, Jan 9, at an incredible venue: Republic NOLA, directly across from the convention center: aot.eventbrite.com

Osase Omoruyi, a *brilliant* PhD student at Harvard, wrote this absolutely monumental and gorgeously multiwavelength magnum opus on one of the prettiest galaxies and clusters I've ever seen. What she found was even more awesome: arxiv.org/abs/2312.06762

This is the most powerful title for me. Henry Kissinger’s Indifference to The World’s Most Helpless People www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Beautiful new paper & images from a supermassive black hole ⚫ at redshift ~10 (!!) detected jointly Chandra + JWST. Congrats to Priya Natarajan, @astrogrant.bsky.social and everyone else involved 🙌🔭 chandra.si.edu/photo/2023/u... + arxiv.org/abs/2305.15458

The American Astronomical Society is delighted to announce a phenomenal slate of Plenary & Prize Speakers for #AAS243. It's going to be awesome. Also: our friends at AAPT are holding their meeting adjacent to ours at the same time. Stay tuned for a coming announcement. 👀❤️

As Project Scientist, I’m proud that JWST is the most in-demand telescope the world has ever seen. As a fellow proposer, my thoughts and prayers are with the panelists who have to wade through all ~1900 proposals, and with all those great ideas that won’t get time.

#JWSTCycle3 will officially be the most number of proposals received for any one ground- or space-based proposal cycle in the history of astronomy, beating ALMA Cycle 6 by ~100 proposals. Unofficial number is ~1,937 JWST Cycle 3 proposals.

The American Astronomical Society is delighted to announce that Prof. Wen-fai Fong will receive the 2024 Berkeley prize at #AAS243 Press release: aas.org/press/wen-fa...

The Apollo 13 "power is everything" scene except it's the slow-burn crisis with the Deep Space Network and the absolute fact that you can't put spacecrafts into space if you can't talk to the spacecraft. spacenews.com/nasa-deep-sp...

JWST friends: is there any reason why these tabs in the ETC shouldn't be reversed? I can't think of any ETC use case in which one wouldn't first set up a Scene+Source, then run a calculation. Feels better for the mental flow to have the tabs in L->R order of operations?