Congratulations to @lancasteruni.bsky.social PhD student Harry Stephenson @hmostevo.bsky.social who passed his viva last month and has now had the corrections officially accepted. Here he is (after changing into his celebration outfit) with a proud supervisor and his internal examiner @vrooje.net 🔭🧪

This is absolutely astonishing - it's rare in astronomy to see so much change on a human timescale, but this really shows how dynamic the gas and dust around a young star can be. Seeing the shadows from the inner regions cast out onto the outer spiral arms, amazing!

I knew this would happen. As if it wasn't bad enough being asked about 'supermoons' (when the Full Moon occurs when it happens to be close to us in its orbit, making it slightly bigger in the sky but not big enough one would notice), we now have press enquiries about the weekend's 'micromoon'.

I swear there are global trends in the AI-generated slop submitted to Research Notes of the AAS. A few months ago, everyone wanted to find possible wide black hole binaries in Gaia. Now it's ill-motivated fits to SPARC rotation curves. 🔭

Brent Crude just hit $111 a barrel. Do we all have to stand on one leg til the price changes? 🏏

I don’t think the Green Party understand how these Lib Dem-style graphs are supposed to work. You highlight everyone except your main competitor to encourage tactical voting for your party. You don’t tell your potential voters to not bother voting as you’ll win anyway 🙃🤔

Latest on UKGov #STFC cuts to physics & astro. Love Hiranya's take: "Peiris said she thinks...policy is “evolving in a matter of weeks”, suggesting it was a “very incoherent approach that leaves us vulnerable...” Yup - that about sums it up. Feels like they're making it up as they go along 😬🧪🔭

Finally! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The fact that Dyson is a billionaire who is one of the biggest agricultural landholders in the UK seems highly relevant here. As does the fact that the UK hasn’t been self sufficient in food since the Industrial Revolution.

I’m curious: Are there people who think the Apollo missions were a hoax but Artemis is real and therefore they’re proper excited by this, even more than everyone else? 🤔🔭🧪

This must be the shot of the mission so far. Beautiful. #ArtemisII

There are now 10 toilets in Space International Space Station: 4 Crew Dragon Docked at ISS: 1 Soyuz Docked at ISS: 1 Tiangong Space Station: 2 Shenzhou Docked at TSS: 1 Artemis II on way around Moon: 1 This will be the first time a toilet has left low earth orbit!

Start the fire. Walk away. Tell the world they’re on their own.

I have no words for this

This is grim stuff. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/o...

But calling for it anyway, however ignorantly, will make a direct difference to what climate change denying donors pay politicians. So there’s that.

The “goal” of the Iran war is now reportedly to open the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war began

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The future of UK Astronomy & Particle Physics is at risk from proposed 30% funding cuts that, if implemented, will be "genuinely catastrophic". Great to see this detailed BBC report on the issue by @pallabg.bsky.social 🔭🧪⚛️ #STFCcuts #SaveUKAstronomy 🗞️: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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Excited to have come away from my trip to London for Royal Astronomical Society Council with a batch of newly-printed “Save Astronomy” stickers! 🔭 @royalastrosoc.bsky.social

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❌️ Stop the cuts! ❌️ We've been campaigning extensively for the reversal of proposed cuts to astronomy and space science. To help spread the word, we've also created some 'Save UK Astronomy' stickers! 🔭🪐 You can pick one up at any RAS event and show your support for the cause.

Let us hope that they will never get the chance. It the UK electorate is stupid enough to vote in a Reform government, we are lost.

My favourite part of the excellent letter by @chionwurah.bsky.social 🧪🔭

Breaking: Looming physics cuts a ‘failure’, says science committee chair. Chi Onwurah says science minister and UKRI leadership must “bear responsibility” and “win back trust”. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-p...

Summary: "it's this question of the [PPAN] partition.... I think it's a very legitimate concern because of the tensioning between the increasing facilities cost: that's what she's trying to work through at the moment to come up with solutions" (sadly no offer of a magic money tree solution though)

Nerc to shut down flying lab amid rising costs. Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements closure will save up to £37 million, research council says. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Oh wow only just realised you can move around on the map and look at them lasair.lsst.ac.uk to see an image like that below 🧪🔭

And we're off! My most favourite telescope, the Vera Rubin Observatory, has turned on its public alert stream and boy, were there a lot of changes in the Universe last night. More coming: ~7 million a night 😮: exploding stars, belching black holes, asteroids cruising through the solar system. 🤗🔭🧪

STFC CEO responds to @jonbutterworth.bsky.social "it is important for all of our ... programmes ... to contribute to us making savings across our entire portfolio" No mention that *all* is disproportionately falling on the particle-astro-nuclear programme 🤷‍♀️😡 www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Here we go…the marvellous Vera Rubin Observatory has started scanning the sky, telling us about things that change and move. In there there are untold wonders and undoubtedly a few surprises. Let’s go!

I’ve admired this 1068 Toledo astrolabe in its case and I studied every millimeter of it on digital images, and today I got to handle it with the medieval manuscripts group. Oxford is wild.

Caltech astrophysicist fatally shot on porch in Antelope Valley; suspect charged with murder

First senior member of the royal family to be arrested since Charles I...

A lot of the AI for science stuff is making feel crazy. There are apparently serious people saying you should use LLMs for idea/hypothesis generation. Having ideas and testing them is what a scientist does. If you are just an assistant to do stuff in the physical world for an AI why even bother?

Today the astro-community discussed the devastating proposed 30% cuts to our research funding, cuts that will be offsetting (some of the) rising costs at UK facilities that we don't use. Hard not to feel victimised when those same facilities make a fanfare announcement about an expensive facelift. 🔭

I prefer it when ‘Traitors’ describes the TV program, not the people potentially electing the next government.

Looks like we’ve found a T dwarf 🧪🔭

Just read this as Im doing it for journal club. Pretty depressing! 🧪🔭 #academicsky

David Hogg has written a white paper on doing astrophysics in the age of LLMs. It looks to be thought-provoking. My initial reaction is that either LLMs will destroy the field or they will force a reckoning with and re-imagining of the current system that often prioritizes output over quality. 🧪

Lt Frank Columbo of the LAPD told reporters “There’s something about this case that doesn’t add up”

Interestingly, our 🔭 department at Herts has got a special room for milkshakes. Now, I've never managed to get in, so not sure if this is where you can get hold of a milkshake, or you just have to stand in there to drink one.

😮

UK soft power latest

We’ve had rain every day in Lancaster since I arrived in 2017

Might explain a few things 😉 #academicsky

Powered? 🧪🔭

Bet they'll vote for Farage again mind.. www.theguardian.com/environment/...