We are thrilled to welcome 11 new members to the DORA Steering Committee! After receiving 200+ nominations from 70+ countries, we’re adding 8 at‑large members + 4 Supporting Org reps. A stronger, even more global DORA 🌍 Read more in our announcement 👉 sfdora.org/2026/03/15/w... #ResearchAssessment

Join us on Wed. 18 March at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. Prof. Junjie Mao from Tsinghua University, China, will deliver a presentation titled "Around the Corner: A New Era of High-resolution X-ray Spectroscopy" (zoom ID on poster).

Join us on Wed. 21 January at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. Prof. Hiroyuki Kurokawa from the the University of Tokyo, Japan, will discuss "MMX and Beyond: Exploring the Origin and Evolution of the Martian System" (zoom ID on poster).

#TodaysLaunch Today, SpaceX successfully launched Pandora, a 45 cm telescope for exoplanet observations (part of NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program). The mission will monitor 20 unique planets through visible light photometry and near-infrared spectroscopy. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/Outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2003, Mars Express entered Mars' orbit at a speed of 5.07 km/s. The mission's main goal was to search for subsurface water (life?) and collect data that would help us better understand Mars’ geology, atmosphere and surface environment. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

I was pleasantly surprised and honoured to learn that I had been nominated by my students for the "2025 Students' Choice Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and the Student Experience" at Macquarie University!

Join us on Wed. 10 December at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. Prof. Wei Feng from the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, will discuss "Tracking Water from Space: the Role of Satellite Gravimetry" (zoom ID on poster).

Join us on Wed. 19 November at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. Prof. Wenya Li (NSSC, China) will discuss Tianwen-1/MINPA” science results from Mars! (zoom ID on poster).

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2021 China launched its CHASE solar mission---the Chinese Hα Solar Explorer. With maximum solar activity in 2024 and 2025, this is indeed an opportune time to try and understand our nearest star in ever more detail. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

Join us on Wed. 15 october at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. Dr. Primoz Kajdic (UNAM, Mexico) will discuss “Space Weather During Solar-Quiet Times: the Role of Upstream Transients” (zoom ID on poster). www.issibj.ac.cn/sytw/202509/...

"When will humans return to the moon? NASA's new mission is offering clues" by SBS News (Australia) includes liberal quotes from me: www.sbs.com.au/news/article...

#OnThisDayInSpace Today is the anniversary of the first human-made object to reach interstellar space: Voyager 1 left the solar system in 2012, 19 billion kilometres from the Sun, travelling at 17 kilometres per second. Go Voyager! #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2019, India’s golden spacecraft Chandrayaan 2 entered lunar orbit. With this mission, India became the fourth nation to execute a soft landing on the Moon and the first country ever to land on the Moon's southern half. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

Join us on Wed. 20 August at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. Prof. Dedalo Marchetti (Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) will discuss, What We Can Understand About the Preparation Phase of Earthquakes from Satellites? (zoom ID on poster)

#TodaysLaunch: India successfully launched the NASA–ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. NISAR will provide critical data for understanding natural hazards, climate change and agricultural dynamics on a global scale. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/Outreach/...

#TodaysLaunch: SpaceX launched TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites), two identical satellites operating in tandem as they orbit Earth and investigate magnetic reconnection and its impact on our planet’s atmosphere. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/Outreach/...

Join us on Wed. 16 July at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. We will welcome Dr. Frédéric Auchère (University of Paris-Sud, France), who will discuss New Views of the Sun from the Solar Orbiter Mission. (zoom link on poster) campaign-statistics.com/browser_prev...

#OnThisDayInSpace Today we're celebrating Asteroid Day, which was established in 2016 by the United Nations. Scientists hope to create awareness of the non-negligible possibility of a large asteroid hitting the Earth... #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2013 NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph mission was launched. IRIS has studied "space weather" from the solar corona to the far heliosphere. We now understand how these processes operate, gather energy and heat up #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace Today is the launch anniversary of NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (2012). NuSTAR was the first mission to study the X-ray sky at energies above 10 keV, aiming to research black holes and map supernova explosions. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2008 NASA launched the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (originally GLAST). The mission's first 5 years were so successful that its operational lifetime was extended by a further 5 years. Black holes galore! #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

Join us on Wed. 18 June at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. We will welcome Dr. Shingo Kameda (Rikkyo University, Japan), who will discuss his work on the LAPYUTA mission. (zoom link on the poster below)

The result of a fairly long interview? just one quote: www.nature.com/articles/d41... Oh well... Shame that the craft didn't make it though!

Xinhua News published a good article about the Tianwen-2 mission following an interview we did earlier this week: english.news.cn/20250529/702...

#TodaysLaunch: China successfully launched its Tianwen-2 mission today. This is the first Chinese sample-return mission to a near-Earth asteroid. It will also perform a flyby of a main-belt comet, marking another milestone in China’s deep-space exploration. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/Outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace Four years ago today, the Chinese Tianwen 1 spacecraft, carrying the Zhurong Rover, made a rare successful landing on Mars. The mission’s main goal was a search for water or ice on the Red Planet. issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/... #ISSIBJ

Join us on Wed. 21 May at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. We will welcome Dr. Andrew Battisti (ICRAR, Australia), who will cover his work on the Ultraviolet Extinction Sky Survey (UVESS). us06web.zoom.us/j/86453751422

#OnThisDayInSpace Today is the launch anniversary of China's Tiangong ("Heavenly Palace") space station. It will soon also welcome the Chinese Space Station Telescope -- rivalling the Hubble with a larger field of view. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace 35 years ago, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, allowing us to view the Universe like never before. Scientifically, #HST data have enabled us to make many breakthroughs, and there is no end in sight! #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2018 TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, was launched. What a phenomenal haul of exoplanets and beautiful asteroseismological data it has so far delivered! #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace Today is the International Day of Human Space Flight. It celebrates space missions, exploration and research, to foster collaboration in space research and exploration and promote peace and harmony among the world’s people and countries. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#TodaysLaunch On 1 April, SpaceX successfully launched its Fram2 mission. It's the first human space mission to explore Earth from a polar orbit. The team will also study the unusual polar light feature ‘Steve’: Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/Outreach/...

Not my usual day at work today: I was privileged to view the sword of Matthew Flinders thanks to my #fellowship at the State Library of NSW. His brother, Samuel, was the astronomer on the first circumnavigation of Australia, and he is the protagonist of the biography I am currently working on.

#TodaysLaunch Today SpaceX successfully launched two science missions: SPHEREx will survey the sky to answer fundamental questions related to the birth of the Universe and the development of galaxies. PUNCH will study the mass and energy of the Sun’s corona. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/Outreach/...

Join us on Wed. 19 March at 4pm (Beijing time) for the next #ISSIBJ "Infinite Horizons" webinar. We will welcome Professor Peter Tuthill (Sydney University), who will cover his work on search for Earth analogues with his brainchild, the TOLIMAN space telescope. www.issibj.ac.cn/spotlight/ne...

Eyes in the sky: Kanyini’s first images mark milestone for South Australian satellite -- www.scimex.org/newsfeed/eye...

#OnThisDayInSpace Today the PRIME-1 (Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1) lunar exploration mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It carries a drill (TRIDENT) and a mass spectrometer (Msolo), to be used for in situ resource exploitation. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/Outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace Today is the launch anniversary (2020) of Solar Orbiter, a joint mission of the European Space Agency and NASA. Solar Orbiter aims to measure the magnetic fields, waves, energetic particles and plasma emanating from the Sun (the solar wind). #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace it's the anniversary of the launch of the very first US satellite, Explorer 1. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace Today, the Earth will reach this year’s perihelion, the point in its orbit that is nearest to the Sun. For more details, see www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/... #ISSIBJ

NASA's LEXI will provide X-ray vision of Earth's magnetosphere - phys.org/news/2025-01...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2003, Mars Express entered Mars' orbit at a speed of 5.07 km/s. The mission's main goal was to search for subsurface water (life?) and collect data that would help us better understand Mars’ geology, atmosphere and surface environment. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched. Webb was meant to conduct research on almost every aspect of the Universe. The observatory has certainly lived up to our expectations, with much more to come! What a treasure trove :-) #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2013 the incredibly successful Gaia satellite was launched by the European Space Agency. The mission’s objective is to create a wide and precise map of more than a billion stars throughout the Milky Way and beyond. Watch this space! #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

Check out @tallstarman.bsky.social's latest post for @globalmarhist.bsky.social!

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2022 the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), aka Danuri, was launched, becoming the first South Korean spacecraft to fly beyond Earth's orbit. The mission aims to study lunar space weather, the Moon’s environment and its topography. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2009 NASA launched WISE, the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer. In 2013, the craft was moved to low-Earth orbit and became NEOWISE. It scans the full sky every 6 months. NEOWISE has made many discoveries, including Comet NEOWISE in 2020. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

#OnThisDayInSpace in 2015, JAXA’s first Venus Climate Orbiter (Akatsuki) entered the planet’s orbit. The spacecraft was officially operational from 2016 to 2017, during which time it made important and unexpected discoveries related to the climate of Venus. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/outreach/...

I was completely surprised today when I received a special award for volunteering at the @seamuseum.bsky.social (Australian National Maritime Museum) this past year -- what a nice surprise and unexpected recognition for something I love to do! Thank you for nominating me!

#TodaysLaunch Today, the Sentinel-1C mission was launched from the Guiana Space Centre, ensuring data continuity for the European Union’s Earth observation programme. It will also deliver radar imagery to monitor the Earth’s changing environment. #ISSIBJ www.issibj.ac.cn/os/Outreach/...