The ice breaker question I often ask at nerdy parties is this: What code or latex editor do you use? My answer: vi for most editing. Emacs for lengthy code and most latex documents. Answers involving web browsers are hard to accept. I love when someone brings up something random like nano.

You can access the article for free here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... (Sorry for the previous link which is broken!)

Sad to realize that 80% of people in North America can’t see the Milky Way at night. We need these protected Dark Sky escapes to connect with the Universe.

I haven't seen research though I'd guess it exists, but handwriting letters *extensively* - as in 18th & 19th centuries- seems to produce a critical mass of great writers & thinkers. Jefferson's correspondence with Adams, for example. Maybe it's quill pens, which slow down writing to thinking speed.

Yes to this also! Everyone has different strategies to learn. I’m reminded of a saying from my dad: “If you do nothing, you know nothing.” I can read all about, e.g., basketball, but unless I’m on the court practicing shots, I’m not going to improve my game.

I remember the “old fashioned library search”

Very excited to share the NASA/ESA/STScI press release of our team's work on Apep! It's a terrific writeup, complete with a brand new beautiful visualisation of the nebula geometry. 1/? ⚛️🔭🧪 science.nasa.gov/missions/web...

Those were beautiful #aurorae in the past days. A solar storm brought a lot of protons to Earth. Not only to Earth but also to #ESAEuclid – but does #Euclid notice? Oh yes. www.euclid-ec.org/here-comes-t... #ESA #Sun #SpaceWeather #space

How did I not know this?!

Astronomers have spotted the largest and most distant flare ever observed from a supermassive black hole. Nicknamed “Superman,” the flare originated 10 billion light-years from Earth, and at its peak, the light emitted shone with the brightness of 10 trillion suns. https://cnn.it/3WFwNNN

Another title for this article could be: “Superman Outshines Scary Barbie” www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/s...

Excellent, exciting new paper by M. Graham et al. who find the newest record holder for most energetic flare from a supermassive black hole, nicknamed “Superman”. The previous record holder was “Scary Barbie,” first reported by our group at Purdue in Subrayan et al. 2023. arxiv.org/abs/2511.02178

So, we are tracking well above Cycle 4. Figure by @mpudoka.bsky.social and Yongda Zhu. 🔭

Michelle's first paper discusses the Pearl in the Shell, a study of an ultra compact dwarf and a debris cloud around a nearby spiral galaxy. The study combines data from professional and amatCheck it out in our latest episode! arxiv.org/abs/2509.14038 🔭 ☄️

Happy Miniature Schnauzer Day! I asked Google “What’s your favorite dog?” and it came back with Miniature Schnauzer—like our Wilbur. A+ to whoever trained this LLM. 🧑‍💻🐾 Does your smart assistant agree?

was v excited to see work by @danmil.bsky.social (+ many others!) featured at the @amnh.org today !!

This new JWST image is one of the most spectacular yet from the space telescope. Giant, newborn stars here are carving away surrounding gas & dust. The bright pair at center is two of the most massive stars known. The dark spire is 50 trillion kilometers tall! 🧪🔭 webbtelescope.org/contents/new...

Rai was a true scientist: curious, rigorous, and deeply committed to the pursuit of knowledge. He was also an incredible mentor who inspired those around him with his generosity, wisdom, and unwavering support. His impact on the world was enormous and he will be deeply missed.

Very nice article by @kashapatel.bsky.social in WaPo about a paper just published in ApJ by Gagliano et al. on the unusual transient SN 2023zkd. The light curve and spectra are consistent with a massive star undergoing an instability-induced merger with a black hole companion. 💥🔭 wapo.st/47uRQcd

Lots of amazing light echo science coming out soon about supernova remnant Cassiopeia A www.astronomy.com/science/jwst...

My attempt with Copilot. Now imagine doing this with sensitive data. Or making critical decisions.

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a dying star’s display in new mesmerising details 🤩 Thanks to Webb astronomers can learn more about the life cycle of stars ⭐️ Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... 🔭🧪

Nature article about the Spanish offer 🔭 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I still feel triumphant and rebellious when I get around the “Duplicate” default in MacOS menus and expertly reveal the needlessly hidden “Save As” by holding down the option key!

Why take this away when it was already there? WHY?!? I thought I’d finally be responsible and upgrade my OS, only to have this rude awakening. Any suggestions on how to *elegantly* handle ps and eps files with MacOS post Sequoia?

Betel-Buddy has been found!

Beautiful image from Gemini Observatory: the dome of their telescope on Maunkea peak, Hawaii. In this time exposure, see the stars circle the north pole of the sky as our planet rotates. Laser beams that probe atmospheric distortion add interest. #astronomy #astroedu #astrophotos #spacephotos #sky

The House markup is looking to cut NSF's budget by ~23% (& would constitute all of the cuts to science as defined by NIST+NOAA+NASA+NSF). I read elsewhere that even though NASA's proposed budget is flat here, the science budget at NASA is down by 18% in the markup. Will try to find this number. 🧪

“That belongs in a museum!”

“… the meteorite is believed to have been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike … [it] is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all the Martian material currently on this planet … phys.org/news/2025-07...

We ran a randomized controlled trial to see how much AI coding tools speed up experienced open-source developers. The results surprised us: Developers thought they were 20% faster with AI tools, but they were actually 19% slower when they had access to AI than when they didn't.

Thank you to @baldwin.senate.gov for submitting an amendment to the Senate Appropriations CJS bill for FY26 to restore #NSF grant funding that has been recently cancelled. @senateapprops.bsky.social better all support this!! #CJS

🧪 BREAKING (good news): Senate subcommittee says NO! to Trump's proposed slashes to NASA & NSF funding. Today, the subcommittee said to keep NASA + NSF funding at $33.9 billion, the same as in FY24. See 7:15 below. Full Senate appropriations committee meets tomorrow about it. 🧵 1/3

“These scientific advances were ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ Will they continue? America has long led in research. Budget cuts could jeopardize that dominance”, by Bruce Partridge wapo.st/44CVsWM

This July 4 holiday, reflect on @orifox.bsky.social’s “Case for Space.” “NASA’s scientific endeavors are weaved into the fabric of American culture.” 🚀 🌭 🇺🇸 ✨

UPDATE on our new interstellar friend #A11pl3Z: Citizen scientist Sam Deen has found earlier observations of from June 25-28, from the ATLAS telescope! Now with 6 days' worth of data, the eccentricity of A11pl3Z's trajectory is narrowed down to e=10.4 ± 1.1! ... that's undoubtedly interstellar. 🔭☄️

💥💥 Double detonation!  For the first time, astronomers have obtained visual evidence that a star met its end by detonating twice. The fingerprint that points to this mechanism is represented by two separate shells of calcium.   Read more: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2511/ 🔭 🧪 ☄️ 1/

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We are thrilled at Purdue University about Rubin Observatory’s First Look presentation! 🤩 We set up a Photo Booth to take selfies with the new data.

Just wow! The teaser to what we're going to get when the Legacy Survey of Space and Time starts in about November - 2104 asteroids in 10 hours of data #RubinFirstLook www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTuq...

Important slide during the presentation. All three components are vital for the success of Rubin Observatory’s mission: the swift, wide-field telescope, the enormous camera, and the massive computational resources needed to process 20 TB of data per night.

Quick and *very rough* comparison between newly revealed Rubin Observatory data and existing DESI Legacy Imaging Survey data. Rubin’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time is gonna rock! 🤯

Thrilled to see so many watch parties tuning in today for Rubin Observatory’s First Look extravaganza!

TODAY is the day! Witness the release of images from the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory at 11am ET, then at noon hear from the Purdue experts who helped make it possible. We are Indiana’s only public watch party! www.youtube.com/live/J5joEyM... #Rubin #GiantLeaps #RubinWatchParty

These “teaser” images from Rubin Observatory look incredible! The massive scale of the data flow to come is starting to really sink in. Can’t wait to see more today!

amtrak’s marketing team gets it

“Enduring space policy requires consensus. It is the essential element that sustains activities that exceed election cycles.” A must-read opinion article from @caseydreier.bsky.social about proposed cuts to NASA

Just watched this story about #AAS246 on local news station Your Alaska Link, filmed earlier today. I am one of the participants interviewed. Thank you Max Treece-Noran for taking the time to share this with the public. And thank you random astronomer who I asked to take some of these photos. 📸 🔭