Never used these plates I inherited from someone. Decided today’s the day.

It was vastly different vibe. I won an essay context and got to go see the bicentennial train when it came through Phoenix.

It would be interesting, if sad, to hear from the mother quail who lost most of their chicks as to what happened. “The Gila monster came”.

I need to know what the AZ exhibit is at the “state fair” on the Mall. From the Atlantic article, “Arizona is an immersive experience involving darkness, birdsong, and the scent of pine.” Is there an astronomy theme?

😮 www.usajobs.gov/job/875171500

Finally had a chance to rebuild and re-armor our wildlife watering station after a very very bad javelina tore it apart and broke the bowl. The quail are appreciative.

Space Telescope Science Institute: NASA’s Webb Studies How Planet Survived Death of its Star science.nasa.gov/missions/web...

🚨 New research alert 🚨 We have found an atmosphere on a planet orbiting a dead star 🔭✴️💀🪐 Our James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of the white dwarf planet WD 1856b give us a preview into the fate of planets like Jupiter after the death of the Sun. 🧵⬇️ (1/10)

For Asteroid day, my cover for the 1985 book by Donald Goldsmith, 'Nemisis-The Death Star and other Theories of Mass Extinction'. A rare (for me) black and white painting.

Last Friday I got to see Roger Angel pitching a new space telescope concept for habitable planet direct imaging.

@ucobservatories.bsky.social is searching for a leader for our outreach and public education programs - looking for a scientist who is passionate about science communication and bringing astronomy to the public. Feel free to reach out with questions or interest! recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF02124

Randomly have eaten out quite a bit this week. Every single place was noticeably understaffed. One place the host never showed up to seat us and we left after 5 minutes. Not sure what this signifies.

Yesterday's wind means the Pocket Fire doubled in size. It expanded west and north, pointing an arm toward Flagstaff. Two "suburbs" - Kachina Village and Forest Highlands - are on evacuation alert. Burning eyes from smoke here in Flagstaff, and the sunlight is orange. app.watchduty.org/i/103670

Headed to Greer, Arizona which is still somewhat remote but was super remote when I was last there in late July, 1976. I was extremely annoying to my parents because I thought for sure I was going to miss the announcement that Viking Lander 1 had found life on Mars while I was off in the mountains.

Please join us in congratulating Lucas Smith, who today successfully defended his Ph.D. Dissertation, Preservation of Presolar Materials and Igneous Clasts in Aqueously Altered Carbonaceous Asteroids. Congratulations, Lucas! 📸: Lucas is pictured with his PhD advisor, Dr. Pierre Haenecour

Kudos to LPL grad students Namya Baijal and Ruby Fulford!

Just unearthed U of A marketing video from 1970 features Kuiper talking about LPL science (~18:45). It's personally interesting to me to see what he picks to highlight LPL. This part of the job hasn't changed much except I need to up my pocket square game. youtu.be/kfCWl0tT9XM?...

Y'all. We made it on the front page of the Arizona Republic today -- ABOVE the fold -- fighting for the lower San Pedro River, Galiuro Mountains, and Sky Islands!

Please join us in congratulating Maizey Benner, who today successfully defended her Ph.D. Dissertation, A Transmission Electron Microscopy Investigation of Phosphorus- and Sulfur-bearing Mineral Formation in Primitive Planetary Materials. 📸: Maizey is pictured with her Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Tom Zega

An angle on LAX you don’t usually see.

Last week I had an article in Scientific American trying to put the chaos and cuts in US research funding into the context of a decades-old misguided drive to make all basic research justify itself as a sellable product. Now the NSF is making that goal even more explicit.

🎥 Black Space Week 2026 — Video 3 of the AAS Journals series! Kayla Smith (University of Arizona) discusses new brown dwarf evolution models showing that clouds and deuterium burning can extend habitable conditions for orbiting planets far longer than previously thought. 🔭 📺 youtu.be/yRLSJvFA_5I

These are classics available from shop.startorialist.com/_t/c/v3/AADS...

Today is #ShowYourStripes day! The warming stripes, created by @edhawkins.org, show how the place where you live has changed over time. Find yours at showyourstripes.info. Download them, share them, and use them to start a conversation today!

Our lunar orbital radar prototype was the first instrument tested in the huge University of Arizona thermal vac chamber! Hopefully we will have an opportunity to send it to the moon. research.arizona.edu/news/prototy...

LPL's Kayla Smith @astrokayla.bsky.social talks about our work on brown dwarf habitable zones in this AAS author video, part of their Black History Week author series. youtu.be/yRLSJvFA_5I?...

Tsinghua University students are building the $2.8M smallsat START mission to intercept asteroid Apophis at 7 km. START to launch in early 2028 as a rideshare payload on a Zhuque-3, then raising to 31,600 km orbit. Will make flyby during peak tidal-stress window at 8.74 km/s.

New theoretical study of possible interiors of Uranus and Neptune, though the authors admit "magma" is a fraught term in this context (but props for ~correct colors to illustrate U&N outer atmospheres!) arxiv.org/abs/2606.18219 - my takeaway: we REALLY need a mission to one or both ice giants

Very happy to be part of this amazing result let by the even more amazing Tiffany Kataria. science.nasa.gov/missions/web...

LPL's Ty Robinson talking up our improvement in the USNWR rankings to be the #1 worldwide public university for space science. (hopefully not attributing to his own arrival on the faculty :) )

Great news! @uarizona.bsky.social ranked #3 in space sciences globally according to the latest report from US News and World report! This ranking includes both LPL and @stewardobservatory.bsky.social. news.arizona.edu/news/u-space...

New US News global rankings for Space Science are out. LPL+Steward looking good.

Shannon was the first person I knew who called out Musk for who we now know he was. More of us should have listened to her.

Today, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope leaves NASA Goddard for the Port of Baltimore to begin its journey to the Kennedy Space Center. This August, Roman will launch into space, broadening our understanding of our solar system & universe. Excited to see it on the move!

LPL's first official Ph.D. graduate was Wayne Slattery in 1976. So this is the 50th year of LPL producing Ph.D. graduates. Wayne's advisor is Bill Hubbard who is still actively doing research today. repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150...

news.ucsc.edu/2026/06/blac... The press release is here! @blackinastro.bsky.social #BlackInAstro

Encapsulates the reflected light planet program. Jupiters next with Roman and Venus-sized planets to come with HWO.

got profiled by the villanova press & media folks www.villanova.edu/university/m...

Kudos to LPL alums Michelle Thompson and James Keane who received their PECASE awards yesterday! More info about this honor is here: www.nasa.gov/organization...

Perhaps we will have some young ones before too long.

Interested in helping the University of Arizona College of Science navigate the current national research environment and grow the enterprise, helping units find new ways to work together? If so you should apply to the Associate Dean for Research position now open. arizona.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Highlighting my grad student Lori Huseby's paper with @offallingstars.bsky.social on UV irradiation of water world hazes. Exoplanets needs more lab work supporting spectral interpretation and this work helps with our understanding of what happens to photochemical hazes. arxiv.org/abs/2606.06691

The White House Office of Management and Budget recently released a proposed rule that would alter management of federal grants, causing significant harm to the scientific community. Submit an individualized comment using our action alert (aas.org/omb-comments) or on Regulations.gov before 13 July.

After 26 years in my garage I’m starting to think I won’t be doing much more BASIC programming or playing space invaders on this. Will try my luck on eBay. It’s Rev4 for the cognoscenti.

It's always hard to perceive depth when looking at the sky, but in fact, when you look at these two, you are looking *across* the Solar System! Light from these objects takes time to reach us, so we are seeing their past. So you are looking across space and time! 📸 NASA Eyse on the Solar System

Alan gave a nice public lecture for us in Las Cruces about the discovery at the time. Very nice guy.

The zodiacal light here is reminiscent of Artemis II eclipse photo.

Our director Carson Fuls talking about meteors over Boston and our survey operations. Check it out! 🔭

The Planetary Society created a fact sheet and action alert about the recent OMB proposal that would, among other things, insert politics into the proposal review process across science. More discussion here: www.planetary.org/articles/whe...