🪼 Your tax dollars paid a scientist to squeeze jellyfish through cheesecloth. Osamu Shimomura processed tens of thousands on an NSF grant to understand why they glow. He found a protein that glowed green under UV light. Called it "green protein." Nobody cared. For decades.

A nice paper by @asborlaff.bsky.social showing that launching telescopes to space doesn't necessarily solve the light pollution issue from satellites. These are satellite trails seen by NASA's SPHEREx space telescope, which appear in 73% of all its images. Eek. arxiv.org/abs/2605.27501

Why is the night sky dark? 🌌🧪 @erikahamden.bsky.social‬ breaks down Olbers' Paradox, the cosmic puzzle that helped scientists first hypothesize that the universe ... #Space #OlbersParadox #Astronomy #Science #Universe This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

Whose zodiac sign is Ophiuchus? 🌌🧪 @erikahamden.bsky.social breaks down the real science of where zodiac signs come from. #Space #ZodiacSigns #Astronomy #StarGazing #Science This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

Space might be closer than you think. 🌍🛰️🧪 @erikahamden.bsky.social explains how the “edge of space,” known as the Kármán line, begins at about 62 miles above Earth’s surface. #Space #Moon #Astronaut #Earth #Science #ISS This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

Incredible video made using images taken by the Artemis II crew shows satellites in orbit around Earth. This is at 30x speed x.com/i/status/205...

DPS 2026 prize announcements! dps.aas.org/news/aas-div... LPL sweeps the scientist prizes! @markmarley.bsky.social, @planetneish.bsky.social, @alibramson.bsky.social, Tad Komacek

NASA just dropped more than 12,000 photos from the Artemis II mission. It'll take me a few days to go through them all, but so far it's one stunner after another. Link: eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos... Credit: NASA/Artemis II Crew (h/t @jonostrower.com)

Astronomers have found the building blocks of life in space! 🧬🧪 @erikahamden.bsky.social‬ explains how scientists detect amino acids like tryptophan in meteorites, asteroids, and even diffuse clouds of gas between stars. #Space #Universe #Astronomy #STEM #Science

From NASA: One week in the solar system 🌔 Even as Artemis II was making its historic trip to the Moon, several other NASA missions were exploring all across the solar system. Here are just a few of the images that some of them captured during the course of a few days in April 2026.

Well, isn’t this a sight for sore eyes! 😍 Our beloved Hubble appears in this amazing image from one of Vantor's WorldView Legion satellites. It was 36 years ago today that Hubble was launched in the bay of the Space Shuttle Discovery from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Credit: Vantor.

Holy shit. The Hubble Space Telescope, photographer in space, BY A SATELLITE ALSO IN SPACE (Happy 36th birthday, Hubble!)

This year, NASA's Voyager 1 will be the farthest human-made object ever. 🚀 🧪 @erikahamden.bsky.social‬ explains how this spacecraft has been racing through space since launching in 1977, flying past Jupiter and Saturn before eventually leaving the solar system entirely. youtube.com/shorts/aE1fl...

Congratulations to @erikahamden.bsky.social, named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow! Erika is being recognized for her groundbreaking work building next-generation detectors — opening up entirely new frontiers in ultraviolet astronomy that were previously out of reach: bit.ly/3OWJB1R

From NASA: We see you, @NASAEarth Here's a view of the extraordinary Blue Planet and its moon, taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Happy Earth Day!

We love an older star! Older stars have had time for planets to form life! But figuring out how old a star is is kind of tricky!

The earth had one natural nuclear reactor (that we know of) and it was running 1.7 billion years ago! ☢️☢️☢️

I'm so thrilled to share that I'm one of the new Guggenheim Fellows!!!! I'm incredibly excited to be part of this great group of people!! Yay!! #guggfellows2026

What does a black hole sound like? 🎤🎶🧪 Astrophysicist @erikahamden.bsky.social breaks down how the supermassive black hole at the center of the Perseus galaxy cluster releases energy into the surrounding hot gas, generating enormous pressure waves that ripple through the cluster.

A bit of a different take on the amazing Artemis II launch footage. Here I stitched clips from the four Solar Array Wing Cameras to make this panoramic video. This is during the later part of the Core Stage burn until MECO and stage separation, sped up to 10x. 🔭🧪 #Artemis

Are you an astronomy graduate student who’s interested in science communication? Apply for the AAS Media Fellowship by June 26! aasnova.org/2026/04/08/a... 🔭 @aas.org

Indianapolis roundup! I was so lucky to go to the Final Four, and watch our awesome basketball team play against Michigan! While the game didn't go quite our way, I had an incredible time talking with fans, media, and fellow Wildcats about both Artemis and athletics! They'll get it next year!!

More context on this #Artemis II image: * This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right * The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon: ☀️🌍🚀🌕

Short video showing them cruising across the night sky!

Hot off the press! A shot of our four brave astronauts on the Artemis II mission heading for the moon! They are currently in the constellation Libra moving at about 5400MPH! Shot from my observatory in Tucson AZ. 2026/04/03 8:10UT Sky motion: 36.7"/min at PA 122.9 🔭 #astronomy #artemisII #nasa

to the moon.

So excited to change my slides for class tomorrow to talk about the Artemis II launch!!!!! MORE MISSIONS PLEASE!! 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

Only 24 people in history have ever seen the full sphere of Earth in space. 🌏🧑‍🚀🧪 @erikahamden.bsky.social explains that this rare view is only possible when you travel far beyond low-Earth orbit. #Space #Artemis #Moon #Astronaut #Earth #Science

This new #JWST image of Saturn is AWESOME

The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program named 24 postdoctoral scientists to its 2026 class. These researchers will investigate how the universe functions, seek to understand how the universe evolved, and try to answer the question: Are we alone? ➡️ https://news.stsci.edu/4t5pxc1

Did you know the Sun is only 20 galactic years old? ☀️ 🧪 This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies. #Space #Science #WomeninSTEM #Universe #Astronomy

Big iced tea matchup on Friday

Thinking about the past? Astronomers do too! #NASAWebb imaged irregular galaxy NGC 6822, which is thought to be similar to those in the early universe. NGC 6822 could help scientists learn about the life cycles of stars and dust. Credit: ESA, NASA, CSA, M. Meixner.

Astronomers continue to puzzle over asteroid 16 Psyche's formation. LPL grad student Namya Baijal and team have predictions to help interpret the data from NASA's Psyche mission when it arrives in 2029. The predictions may help settle the mystery of Psyche's makeup. news.arizona.edu/news/large-c...

If you are not a (professional or amateur) astronomer and you ask me what some bright point in the sky is, I’ll probably answer “Jupiter”. Neither of us will know if I’m right, but we’ll both be satisfied

astronomy is so funny because it's this fairly niche interest for a small community of nerds and also it's 99.9999% of everything that exists

arXiv is being spun out from Cornell University and is looking for an inaugural CEO. jobs.chronicle.com/job/37961678...

FYI, these are all headed to their new home with @erikahamden.bsky.social! 🤩 Get your own spacey book collection here: www.asplibraryproject.com #ASPLibrary 🧪 📚 🔭 #BookSky 📚💙

ICYMI: Astronomers are losing their minds over #NASAWebb’s latest images of the very brainy-looking nebula PMR 1. Its distinctive form is the result of a dying star expelling its outer layers: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-examines-cranium-nebula/ 🔭 🧪

Reporting live from Galaxy Slam. Marcia Rieke has already figured out and deployed the flashing light spirit towels we all got.

Five years ago today! We imaged Perseverance on its descent to Mars, under fairly challenging conditions but we did it because we have a kickass team. www.uahirise.org/ESP_068281_9...

Our Sun is a “lonely” star, and that makes it unusual in a universe where most stars have companions. ☀️🧪

Galaxy Slam trading cards are in. Better stock up on Ty’s for selling on eBay after the HWO life detection discovery in 2041.

Hey y'all. I'm hiring. Are you interested in building instruments for astrophysics? wd5.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...

Astrophysicist @erikahamden.bsky.social‬ breaks down how our galaxy alone contains hundreds of billions of stars, and the observable universe holds hundreds of billions of galaxies spread across an unimaginably vast volume of space.

The universe is packed with galaxies, but still most of it is astonishingly empty. 🌌

Saturn. By Cassini.

Kudos to LPL's Head and Director, Dr. Mark Marley, for being awarded the 2026 Lecar Prize! science.arizona.edu/news/lunar-p...

You HAVE to watch this 55 second video. When the muscle of University sports marketing meets the expertise of space science. Features LPL's Ty Robinson and Kris Klein. youtu.be/fhxf4XpescY

If you stood on the Moon, you’d see Earth frozen in one spot in the sky. 🌍🧪 Astrophysicist @erikahamden.bsky.social‬ unpacks how tidal locking, a gravitational effect that causes the Moon to rotate once for every orbit around Earth, keeps one side of the Moon permanently facing us.