There's a lot to be said for having the mission team able to talk about their own data ☄️

“I really want people to know that no one is immune to this, anyone can get long Covid. I didn't think it would happen to me.” Read it and weep: www.1news.co.nz/2025/10/10/o...

BEHOLD the majesty of the Kiwi cheese scone. This scone isn't here for a fancy tea. This scone has come to rumble. This scone demands MORE butter. This scone has OPINIONS about jam. This scone is three square meals and elevenses. This scone has HEFT. You do not eat this scone. You experience it.

Just going to say that it is hurtful when a systematic study effort by the global small-body community, with many of the campaigns led by women, with results being pushed to free open-source arXiv & data repos for scicomm as quickly as possible, is described as lacking coordination/communication

So today I celebrate the work of @carersinstemm.bsky.social who are calling for systemic changes to funding, policy & culture to support carers in STEM. Funders & employers must listen if they recognise and value the importance of a diverse workforce.👩‍🔬🧪 Read their report 👉 carersinstemm.co.uk 8/9🧵

🔭 Comet Lemmon Brightens Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Sabet & Julien De Winter apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25093...

😭 If only NZ experienced wind, even offshore, and the light of the sun also

"ESA plans to release imagery by next week. NASA will not be able to release any of its data, or even comment on it, until the U.S. federal government ends the shutdown."

Come work with us to define the future of digital design education in Aotearoa! We’re looking for candidates with strong background in teaching, research, design practice, and experience with web platform, game engines, or mobile apps. #AcademicJobs #AcademicSky jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a...

All eyes on #3I/ATLAS ☄️ Our Mars Express & ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter will observe the comet around its closest approach to Mars on 3 October 2025, when 3I/ATLAS will be around 30 million km from the red planet. Stay tuned and follow esa.int/3IATLAS 🔭🧪

When an interstellar object passes close by, all eyes are on it! #ESA is making its solar system mission look at the #comet 3I/ATLAS: first #ExoMars TGO and #MarsExpress when the comet passes close to Mars and then the #Juice, currently on its way to […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

🔭 Two Camera Comets in One Sky Image Credit & Copyright: Luc Perrot (TWAN) apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

Today on the arXiv: Ye et al. 2025, "Small Near-Earth Objects in the Taurid Resonant Swarm" - arxiv.org/abs/2509.22602 And @astrokiwi.bsky.social et al. 2025, "The Origins & Reservoirs of Exocomets" - arxiv.org/abs/2509.22541

Clouds are by far my favorite photographic subject. On Saturday September 27, 2025 a storm passed across the High Desert bringing thunder and rain. For a time cumulus clouds rolled over the region, some catching the sunlight and other closer shaded clouds being indirectly lit by them.

Comet 3I/Atlas is a fun challenge for PUNCH. We're very sensitive, though not a "telescope" (~2.5' resolution: basically naked-eye). At mag 12, the sky is *very* crowded. But we can see Atlas and SWAN in nearly-raw data. We're imaging at 4 minute cadence 24/7; FOV is 90° centered on the Sun. 🧪🔭🛰️☀️

Maori scholar, Makereti Papakura writing at her desk c.1910. The room is decorated with a mix of Maori & European mementoes whilst the rafters are painted with traditional kowhaiwhai patterns. Makereti will be awarded a posthumous degree in Oxford tomorrow, almost a century after she died in 1930.

Saturn, rising behind its largest moon Titan. This scene is a composite of images taken by the Cassini spacecraft on 31 March 2005. At the time, Cassini was 7,000 km from Titan and 1.2 million km from Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/Ian Regan/Val Klavans

"The power on campus is out. The buildings are all locked down and there's no access." "There's a 4.56 billion year old asteroid fragment in my office that needs to be on an international flight tonight." This trip was not starting smoothly 🤨

As Aotearoa restructures its science system, this is a moment to rethink how we fund discovery. Let’s build a system that supports researchers – not just institutions → ojs.victoria.ac.nz/nzsr/article...

From Mckenzie Ferrari: Learn how rocket launches and the demand for satellites threaten astronomy and the ozone layer. 🔭✨☄️ astrobites.org/2025/09/26/r...

Small fuzzball time 🌸

This year I have the pleasure of watching stick insect hatch from their tiny eggs! These are native species Acanthoxyla inermis according to @morganemerien.bsky.social very cute! #NZLabLife #Insects en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acantho...

Geologists of bluesky, great opportunity at Otago Uni, NZ for a Lecturer in Earth Science! Special shout out to my #biomarker colleagues, the dept has a well set up, near new Org Geochem lab without a PI, with GCMS/FID and HPLC, if anyone wants a change of scene! ⚒🧪🥼🌊 otago.taleo.net/careersectio...

Gargantuan Gaia review by Michael Perryman "271 pages, 126 figures, accepted for publication in Physics Reports" arxiv.org/abs/2509.10883

🧪🔭☄️

stressed about the news lately? look at today’s gorgeous new hubble image of a nebula in the large magellanic cloud, the galaxy’s second-largest star-forming region 🌌

Close encounters of the average kind: Yukon Huang explores an analytic model of interstellar objects are scattered out of their planetary systems #epscdps #epscdps2025

Have interstellar objects ever hit Earth? No confirmed instances based on fireball statistics but intriguing hints. Dusan Marčeta explores the possibilities with a simulation and it could happen! #epscdps #epscdps2025

Rosemary Dorsey reviews a simulation of the interstellar objects that NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory might reveal - how many, what their characteristics may be (maybe 6-51 objects - hard to detect!) @vrubinobs.bsky.social #epscdps #epscdps2025

John Forbes: according to a model based on stellar populations, our galaxy contains a tapestry of streams of interstellar objects (ISOs) as illustrated in this still from a video that has been shown repeatedly in this ISO session #epscdps #epscdps2025

Cole Gregg explores whether interstellar material might come from circumstellar debris disks (it probably can!), and if so, where that material might come from and what would be the physical characteristics thereof #epscdps #epscdps2025

Leah Albrow's talk (given by John Forbes who stepped in to give it) planet dynamical instabilities leave their mark on the ISO population #EPSCDPS2025

@chrislintott.bsky.social kicks off the “interstellar objects” session with an interesting discussion of how the orbits can link to potential sources of stellar populations, which gives us us context for their potential chemistry #epscdps2025 #epscdps

Rosemary Dorsey - giving a thesis talk on predictions of the ISO (interstellar object) yield with Rubin Observatory - Most of the results presented are in this nice paper iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... #EPSCDPS2025

Trying to steal a phrase from the exoplanet people: to know the interstellar object population you need to understand the Milky Way: know thy galaxy, know thy ISO.

#EPSCDPS2025 begins today with Richard Cartwright discussing the moons of Uranus. Leading-trailing asymmetries in H2O, CO2. Also measurements of CO, which might be locked into clathrate, and an isotope measurement of 13C versus 12C. Woah.

'I hope you are well' is one of those simple salutations that really does not work at particular times of receipt

I really like how this story about 3I/ATLAS focuses on the sociology as much as an excellent summary of what we now know about this new interstellar comet ☄️. We've planned for this! 🔭🧪

3 things ahout Apophis we have to communicate as science community: 1) Apophis will safely pass the Earth 2) Apophis will safely pass the Earth 3) Apophis will safely pass the Earth Dr. Richard Binzel (MIT) at the Keynote talk in room Jupiter #EPSCDPS2025

Including the session entirely on interstellar objects! Which I proposed and we convened in advance of 3I/ATLAS's discovery ☄️, so this is all *other* work underway in the field of ISO studies. Posters Thurs, talks Friday morning #epscdps2025 meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC-DPS2025...

Join us for the annual Women in Planetary Science Discussion Hour at #EPSCDPS2025 in Helsinki! 🎯 Building more international collaborations & funding opportunities across borders. 📅 Thursday, 11 Sept 🕧 12:30 📍 Saturn (Hall B) + online 🔗 Register: bit.ly/WiPS_2025

Diversity doesn’t sustain itself—it endures only if we keep fighting for it. Grateful to the members of #EPSCDPS2025 for leading the way to keep science open and inclusive for all.

Congratulations to Tim Lichtenberg, an alumnus of the Oxford Planetary Climate Dynamics Group, on being awarded the Europlanet Early Career Medal! The trio of medals has gone to a great bunch, recognizing three career stages. www.europlanet.org/tim-lichtenb...

More cuts to the Marsden Fund of @royalsocietynz.bsky.social. This takes it down to $10/capita in real terms when it was over $16 for most of this century. Australia's equivalent, the ARC, is NZ$42/capita, as is the US NSF (despite ongoing attempts to gut the latter). www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Lovely lunar eclipse happening now as the Moon glides partly through Earth's shadow - clear skies to the west in Ōtautahi - take a look!

Nice short discussion of the evolving understanding of 3I/ATLAS as this interstellar comet continues its approach to the Sun and more observations come in from various telescopes, featuring a lot of the observing folks 🔭☄️🧪

Today our team released findings on the nature of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, based on our first round of JWST observations. The data are incredible: Not only did we detect and map gas and dust in the coma, but we found that 3I is one of the most CO2 rich comets ever seen! Check it out:

Rahatgaonkar et al. 2025 note there is possibly a bit of nickel carbonyl in there too. Don't try to taste the comet.

Not-alien nickel identified on 3I/ATLAS with the VLT 🔭 - so much great science emerging for this interstellar visitor