What wisdom will the Soul Nebula whisper for 2026? Astronomers know how to listen. [1/2] Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

Four giant stories in one frame! Each of these nebulae exists in different evolutionary stages and at different distances from us. Details in alt text. Image credit: my tiny 2" telescope (and lots of patience) #astronomy #science 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

Hello BlueSky! This is the Christmas Tree Cluster. I color-mapped the heart of the nebula to tree-green to bring out the effect. Would you like this as a wallpaper? I'm happy to share for free: photos.app.goo.gl/e9LNThCC97NZ... Image credit: my tiny telescope. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I happened to be up in San Francisco during the massive power outage tonight. The dark skyscrapers imparted a weird, Dickensian feel.

This looks fake, but I took this photo in the middle of one of many aimless walks that my kids have led me on.

The Iris Nebula. The unusual thing about this nebula is the vast filament structures that persist all the way down to tiny scales. Right now, astronomers want to know why. Turbulence, magnetic fields, radiation pressure, or...? Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

The Iris Nebula. The unusual thing about this nebula is the vast filament structures that persist all the way down to tiny scales. Right now, astronomers want to know why. Turbulence, magnetic fields, radiation pressure, or...? Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

A story about snowflakes and chaos. Read my latest about how noise enables subtle, intricate patterns at every level (for Scientific American). www.scientificamerican.com/article/math... #science #math #physics 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

A story about snowflakes and chaos. Read my latest about how noise enables subtle, intricate patterns at every level (for Scientific American). www.scientificamerican.com/article/math... #science #math #physics 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I love the progress from a 48” telescope in 1966 to a 2” telescope today and the vast improvements made in between. Makes you wonder what’ll possible in the next 60 years!

The Helix Nebula! I know, that name confused me too. So I found the first known photo of this nebula... 1/2 (thread) Image credit: my tiny 2" telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The amazing mushroom I encountered on a hike today! It was cataloged in 1984 as a "bear's head".

24 Hour Fitness desk guy: Are you an astrophysicist? I saw your NY Times articles and your astro photos Me: Nope, a physicist. But I love writing about the universe! Guy: I have major questions about black holes We spent the next 20 mins discussing the mind bending consequences of extreme objects

Rover's snaps as it strolls around Mars will never get old!

Huh. I was only aiming at this while waiting for other targets to rise, but then... wow!! All those Milky Way stars (and dust) make it hard to see this galaxy, hence its mysterious name "The Hidden Galaxy". Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The Sun and absolutely enormous spots in white light. 3 December 2025. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour

Here's what I've been looking at the past week: * NGC 2403, a weird galaxy that produces too many supernovae * Thor's Helmet, looks cool * NGC 660, another weird galaxy whose core is on a different axis than its arms * The Snow Angel - you can only see the wings #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Here's what I've been looking at the past week: * NGC 2403, a weird galaxy that produces too many supernovae * Thor's Helmet, looks cool * NGC 660, another weird galaxy whose core is on a different axis than its arms * The Snow Angel - you can only see the wings #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

So exciting!! Last night's moonless, cloudless, freshly rain-scrubbed sky allowed me to pull out Leo, a tiny ghostly satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Its's the faint blob next to the much brighter star, Regulus. Image credit: my tiny telescope (about 4 hrs) -- 1/2 #science #astronomy 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

Hello BlueSky! This is the Christmas Tree Cluster. I color-mapped the heart of the nebula to tree-green to bring out the effect. Would you like this as a wallpaper? I'm happy to share for free: photos.app.goo.gl/e9LNThCC97NZ... Image credit: my tiny telescope. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

In anything less than true darkness, the "Phantom Galaxy" slips away like a ghost, its delicate light too faint for many amateur telescopes. The core may harbor a rarity: an intermediate-mass black hole! Image credit: my tiny telescope, about 4 hours of imaging. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

A sparkling midnight rose, known as Caroline's Rose (or NGC 7789 if you prefer catalog names). This open star cluster is an anomaly among its peers due to its "straggler" stars which appear deceptively younger than their neighbors. 1/2 Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I used a tool to remove the stars from this photo. So if you're sitting in a spaceship right next to it, this is what you would see. This is the "fossil footprint nebula" because it has 3 toes that look vaguely like a dinosaur footprint. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

I used a tool to remove the stars from this photo. So if you're sitting in a spaceship right next to it, this is what you would see. This is the "fossil footprint nebula" because it has 3 toes that look vaguely like a dinosaur footprint. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Amid all of yesterday's excitement, this was last night's "Beaver moon", named for the season when beavers feverishly prepare dams and lodges for winter. And especially cool is the "lunar halo" that encircled it (caused by moonlight refracting off of ice crystals in clouds). #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The cave nebula: a delicious interstellar cauldron of hot gas, baby stars, and organic molecules. Far too hot for life right now, but maybe after things have cooled down... Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The cave nebula: a delicious interstellar cauldron of hot gas, baby stars, and organic molecules. Far too hot for life right now, but maybe after things have cooled down... Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Yes, the core, where the sunlight-generating nuclear reactions, occur, is in the central ~25% of the Sun. In fact, that makes the image even more amazing. Not only are we seeing through 100% of the Earth but 75% of the Sun as well!

The Little Rosette Nebula began as a cloud of cold, dark gas. Over time, gravity transformed the center into a cradle, kindling newborns stars. These infant suns then poured their energy back into the gas, warming it into a stunning nebula. Image credit: my tiny telescope #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Monday morning on Earth. Life first stirred on our planet 4.5 billion years ago. In another 5, the Sun will exhaust its hydrogen, swell into a red giant, and draw our small world into its fading heart. Our story -- whatever it is that you're doing today -- is at its midpoint. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

One of the biggest and most publicized disputes in stellar astronomy in recent decades centers on the distance to this star cluster, the Pleiades (the 7 Sisters). Image credit: my tiny telescope (~4 hours) #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

This astronomical snake thing is my most distant observation to date! You're peering beyond our Local Group at the "Rose Galaxies", 350 million light years away. Image credit: my tiny telescope plus 16 hours of photon collecting. #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Not many pulsars have been identified optically, but this one has. And you can actually hear the moment when the discovery was made.

I think I also caught the light from the surrounding nebula generated by the pulsar too, a while back! These are 10s integrations (so, not seeing it blink on/off) but rather the accumulated light over the course of an hour from pulsar effects. Position is consistent with professional shot below!

Here are the remnants of a massive star that ignited in 1054. Ancient astronomers marveled at how they could see the supernova even during the day. All that's left today is the faint, colorful smudge called the Crab Nebula. Image credit: my tiny telescope - only 2 hours! #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The "Pillars of Creation" lie deep in the heart of the Eagle Nebula. According to a 2025 paper, these pillars have a hue of red that is off from what we'd expect, hinting that the dust inside is anything but ordinary. Image credit: my tiny telescope (8.5 hrs of observing). #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Proven: strange patterns in the prime numbers that require chaos to understand. And a way to beat a 200 year old prime-hypothesis. My latest for Scientific American! www.scientificamerican.com/article/math... #Science #ScienceNews #Research #stem #ScienceWriting #Math #Discovery #BigIdeas 👩🏾‍🔬🧪

Proven: strange patterns in the prime numbers that require chaos to understand. And a way to beat a 200 year old prime-hypothesis. My latest for Scientific American! www.scientificamerican.com/article/math... #Science #ScienceNews #Research #stem #ScienceWriting #Math #Discovery #BigIdeas 👩🏾‍🔬🧪

The Ghost of Cassiopeia nebula. Cassiopeia (the bright star) is an Ethiopian queen in Greek mythology. Her star illuminates nearby dust clouds, imparting a ghostly, ethereal appearance. Image credit: my tiny telescope (about 4 hours of light collecting). #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The Andromeda Galaxy, courtesy my tiny smart telescope. This galaxy is *very* close, only 2.5 million light years away. If someone in Andromeda is looking back at us right now (and can resolve Earth) they're watching early humans! 15 hours of 20s photos stacked #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

When you have a moment -- take a look at this math story involving butterflies, fractals, Douglas Hofstadter, and patterns in irrational energy potentials! My latest for Quanta. www.quantamagazine.org/ten-martini-... #science #MathSky #math #physics ⚛️👩🏾‍🔬

Remarkably, the central stars rotate one direction, while the stars in the hazy spirals go the opposite direction! Dark dust in the core gives the galaxy its name, the Black Eye Galaxy (magnitude 9). Image credit: 20 hours of imaging on my tiny smart telescope. #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

The Trifid Nebula! A pretty stellar nursery being ripped apart by intense radiation from a nearby star (note the glaring crack through the middle). Image credit: my tiny telescope (and about 5 hours of exposure). #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Feast on this view inside the galactic bulge - the huge crush of 10 billion stars that surround our supermassive black hole. The bright light in the center is NGC 6401, a star cluster which lies 5⁰ off of the galactic center. Credit: my tiny telescope. #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

William Rowan Hamilton was born #OTD in 1805. His reformulation of classical Newtonian mechanics via the principle of stationary action is one of the most beautiful ideas in all of physics, and is at the heart of nearly every modern theory in physics. 🧪 ⚛️

About 600,000 light years apart, these 2 galaxies are likely shaping each other via the tugs of gravity's incredibly long-distance tendrils. NGC 5905 (upper left) and NGC 5908 (lower right). Image credit: my tiny telescope (about 10.5 hours) #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

A lone astronomical bubble floats inside frothy hot gas. Welcome to the Bubble Nebula! In the middle sits a massive star, the equivalent of ~45 suns. To make this bubble, it blew off ~15 suns. Eventually, it will end in a supernova. Credit: my tiny smart telescope. #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Does anyone want a new phone background? This is the Tulip Nebula, courtesy my tiny smart telescope. Feel free to grab the full resolution version here: photos.app.goo.gl/SuMjKTFX5P9x... #astronomy #science 👩🏾‍🔬🔭

The Western Veil Nebula. These colorful glowing filaments are part of the lacy last remnants of a massive star that exploded over 10,000 years ago. Image credit: my tiny smart telescope. #astronomy #science 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

Waiting for a series of lightning talks on Vera Rubin's first images. I clearly wasn't the only one who wanted to hear lots of excited astronomers yack about it! #astronomy 🔭