That eerie blue glow is Pluto’s atmosphere. New Horizons was looking at the dwarf planet backlit by the Sun. Pluto is the only object beyond Neptune with a known atmosphere. It’s mostly nitrogen, but the pressure is just 1/100,000th of Earth’s. #astronomy Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

W3-JWST-3A-FINAL | NIRCAM #JWST Cropped. I tried to extract as much detail as possible here, and honestly, it blows my mind.

The 1st planet candidate w/Earth-like radius & orbit transiting a Sun-like star bright enough for serious follow-up. Congrats to citizen scientists Alexander Venner, Hans Martin Schwengeler, Martti H. Kristiansen, Mark Omohundro & Ivan A. Terentev! iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3... #news #astronomy

After more than a week of additional shooting this #astrophoto, I got ~21 hours total after culling (clouds, shake due to wind, autofocus issues…). Much better, but shows the limits of my old Oly E-M5 II; I strapped a Peltier cooler to it but it's no match for modern cooled astrocams noise-wise.

You can’t tell me we have a functioning economic system when the richest man in human history is one of the most profoundly stupid people in human history

We don't just build observatories out of glass and steel around here... Happy #InternationalLegoDay from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory! 🔭🧪 In their free time, our staff have channeled their creativity into building a mini Rubin universe. Which build is your favorite? 🧱

Yeah, I recommend not using the patreon apple app to join. Just go on the website, it's 1. cheaper for YOU to support your favorite creatures and 2. All the money you give goes to the creator.

For those that are wondering about ReedPop the company who produces Star Wars Celebration, New York Comic Con, C2E2, & many more and ReedPop’s affiliation with ICE here’s a link to gives all the details actionnetwork.org/petitions/st...

The answer stays #42 : > For tonight: if you set minAltitude to 42°, you can confidently shoot M78 until it reaches that point without worrying about the neighbor's lights (Claude's recommendation analysing the impact of my neighbour's insecurity lights on my astrophotos) #astrophotography

Earthshine #astrophoto

Here's the most productive part of the night, gathered into a video. These are all still images, though. #Astronomy #Astrophotography

When M78 sank too low in the sky, I had the scope switch to M44, the Beehive cluster. This is about 2 hours of 10-second exposures after culling. I used a short exposure time because the cluster supposedly has a mix of red and white-blue stars. However I can’t see any blue in my image. #astrophoto

By the way M78 "Casper the Friendly Ghost", many say online that they can't see a ghost. I think this comes from prevalent very bright (IMHO often over-) processing. E.g. in most pics at telescopius.com/astrophotogr... I can't see a ghost either amid all those bright colours. #astrophotography

Casper the Friendly Ghost (M78) looking at a section of Barnard’s Loop (Sh 2-276). After about a week of shooting, having collected some 12 hours of integration time (of which I discarded 7 hours because of clouds, focus issues etc.) this is still very much WIP as it needs more time. #astrophoto

StAr TrEk Is WoKe NoW Star Trek: youtu.be/pSq_UIuxba8?...

Voyager is 31! "Much will be made of the political correctness of this new venture, not least in that the captain of this ship is a woman". A woman, captain of a ship 😱 Just a reminder that we've come a long way, and that the reactionary whiners of today are just the latest in a long line. 🖖

One of the most brutal episodes in human history. What happened in the Belgian Congo under King Leopold II is beyond belief: 7 shocking facts.

@kat-astro-bot.bsky.social Astrometry Bot update is live. It replies to your astrophoto posts with sky location and object IDs. Call it by: • mentioning it in your post • mentioning it in a comment (bug fix) • mentioning it in a quote • Now supports AstroBin links (beta).

Abdanan hat übrigens nur 25.000 Einwohner. Dürften also fast alle auf der Straße sein.

Daran sollten wir uns heute erinnern.

Flying into Orion’s Belt at 0.001c 🌌 The hunter isn’t flat. It’s a real 3D region of space. (Upgraded animation!) #astronomy 🔭

I'm developing an open source program with GUI that stores a variety of space photometry and converts them to color, TrueColorTools. It can also process images and generate color charts. Here's the latest table of some featured objects (geometric albedo mode, sRGB color space, Illuminant E)

There were 1.5 hours tonight after dusk and before the Moon rose. No major clouds but unfortunately haze or high clouds. I looked at Messier 34, the Spiral Cluster, a pretty little open cluster about 1500 light years away. I also took an #astrophoto of it with my phone, see alt text for details.

@quantumkat.bsky.social Hi, thanks for the awesome Astrometry Bot! One issue, the link between my request post (bsky.app/profile/data...) and the bot's answer (bsky.app/profile/kat-...) seems to be broken. I.e. when I view my request post, it shows that it has 1 reply, but I can't see the answer:

Trump officials were warned repeatedly that cutting off food aid to refugees in Kenya would lead to violence and death. They did so anyway, and thousands starved. www.propublica.org/article/keny...

Friday early morning shot of the Southern night sky, and an evening shot with the almost full Moon, from rural Cherangani in Western Kenya. See image alt texts for details. #astrophotos

Donald Trump und Katherine Reiche haben beide verloren. Der Markt hat längst gegen sie entschieden:

"Seit drei Jahrzehnten gelingt es rechtsextremen Parteien nicht, in der Wallonie politischen Boden zu gewinnen. Selbst Social Media und Donald Trump ändern daran wenig." www.rnd.de/politik/waru...

In Qom, dem Geistlichen Zentrum des Mullah-Regimes kam es zu heftigen Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Regimekräften und Demonstranten.

Fast jedes große Problem, das 2025 diskutiert wurde, hängt irgendwie mit der Klimakrise zusammen. Blöd nur, dass selbst unsere Politiker das anscheinend nicht gemerkt haben. #Klimakolumne, Jahresendedition. www.saarbruecker-zeitung.de/sz-spezial/k...

28 Milliarden Steuergeld verschenkt der Staat heute durch Verjährung an reiche CumEx-Steuerkriminelle. Juckt die "gutbürgerliche" Mitte nicht! Aber wehe eine Alleinerziehende oder ein prekär Beschäftigter kriegt 1 Cent #Grundsicherung zu viel. Dann aber! 🤬

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

I did not understand this: one of the five Europeans the US has barred from traveling to the United States...is a permanent resident who lives with his family in the US. Now he is worried about being arrested and deported for the crime of monitoring online hate. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...

Oh and Moin, as we say in northern Germany, and happy 2. Christmas day from sunny and sommerly #Kenya 🌞

Great article from 2 years ago about the reasons why countries of the Global South hedge their bets when it comes to aligning with the great powers. Trump seems to be doing much of the contrary of what the author recommended. We shall see where that leads… www.foreignaffairs.com/world/global...

Bin durch die Sanktionen der US-Regierung gegen HateAid auf eben diese Organisation aufmerksam geworden und habe erstmal was gespendet. Vielen Dank @hateaid.org für Euren Einsatz! www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/usa...

Cosmic pong. #astrophotography

Here's what I've been looking at the past week: * NGC 2403, a weird galaxy that produces too many supernovae * Thor's Helmet, looks cool * NGC 660, another weird galaxy whose core is on a different axis than its arms * The Snow Angel - you can only see the wings #science #astronomy 🔭👩🏾‍🔬

At about 49 million light years from Earth, NGC 7331 and friends are wishing you all a great Thanksgiving. This was an 18 hour LRGB capture taken from my yard, under Bortle 5 skies in central MA using an 8” SCT at 1422mm focal length. Happy Thanksgiving! 🔭 #Astrophotography

Got around to processing a shot from earlier this year: Antares and surrounding nebulosity, with globular clusters M4 and NGC 6144. #astrophotography

40 Eridani, the system of Mr. Spock’s home planet Vulcan 🖖 A triple system of a star slightly smaller than the Sun, a white and a red dwarf. 80 x 0.019s sub-exposures with the AstroShader app on 10“ Dob at 100x. AS couldn’t align, so raws processed using Siril, GraXpert and Gimp. #astrophotography

Es wirkt seltsam, heute an die Novemberpogrome von 1938 zu erinnern. In einer Zeit, in denen der Antisemitismus allgegenwärtig ist und global eskaliert. In denen jedes „Nie wieder“ fast zynisch wirkt. Aber es bleibt dabei: Es ist geschehen und es kann wieder geschehen. Und wir müssen uns erinnern.

A personal reflection on the destructive erosion of ethics, norms and respect for law at NASA: 🧪🔭 🧵

This is from the national press in Kenya. Don't underestimate how problematic this issue has become out there. When the west forgets its morality — The shame of British soldiers in Kenya www.ippmedia.com/the-guardian...

RIP Barbara Gips (1936-2025) "The Alien slogan has been named to countless lists of the best movie taglines ever written. New York Times critic Janet Maslin opened her review of Alien writing, “The thing that most made me want to see Alien was that irresistible line they’ve been using in the ads.”

This is how president Ruto is doing to his harmless citizens yesterday... 😭

Guten Tag, ich bin das Problem im Stadtbild.

I have this compilation and it’s awesome.