Picked up my 30th Potentially Hazardous Asteroid last shift. This one is interesting. In a retrograde comet-like orbit with a period around 26yrs but showing no activity at ~1 AU from the sun. Likely 1km + in size with Earth MOID = 0.0275 AU. Now published as 2025 VP.

Sharon was, to my great benefit, my boss, teacher, and mentor. And goddamn could she write. This lede!

I don’t begrudge the hawk its dinner but wish it had eaten on the outside of the patio wall instead of inside.

We (The School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU) are looking for a new director! Come be my new boss! apply.interfolio.com/176991

Goddard is a critical component of the US capability to study Earth, the sun, the solar system, and our universe. Discarding pieces of this capability without a great deal of forethought is a major mistake.

Q&A with @catalinaskysurvey.bsky.social's Director Carson Fuls about discovering Comet Lemmon. news.arizona.edu/employee-new...

Today Show Tucson feature this morning ideally should have had featured the other side of Cherry in this aerial shot.

Enjoyed giving a UofA Origins talk on how protoplanetary disks evolve – featuring new results from ALMA and JWST. The recording is available here 👇 youtu.be/mdgGgnjVbb0 @uarizonalpl.bsky.social @stewardobservatory.bsky.social

I wrote a textbook! I hope you like it. store.ioppublishing.org/page/detail/...

Column: You can hardly turn a corner in Tucson's core without seeing a lively mural scene of desert life, many of the pieces by Joe Pagac. Some muralists say it's getting to be too much of the same. Even Pagac had to ponder when asked if there's too much Pagac. tucson.com/news/local/s...

Some new members of the family.

Lots of trick or treaters tonight and great costumes.

So the updated 3I/ATLAS orbit now included positions up to a couple days ago… ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_l... The orbit now has a *marginally* (3.16sigma) detectable A1 radial non-gravitational acceleration of (1.66+-0.53)e-6 au/day^2. Given the periheilion (1.3au), if you compare it to….

It’s the saddest day of the year: the day that the wait for a new Slow Horses season begins.

Practically Wild Kingdom out here. IYKYK

Doesn’t look like a comfortable way to drink.

Bought two $8.95 items at a small shop. 60-something clerk adds it up with mental math: “2 times 9 minus 10. $17.90” I told her “no one under 60 would understand what you just did.” She beamed.

New paper drop led by former postdoc Jacob Adler now at ASU. www.nature.com/articles/s43... Pressure, temperature, & composition affect the transport and morphology of sedimentary flows on Mars - in space and time! ☠️ beware of using earth analogs to interpret Hesperian and Amazonian deposits☠️

Ahh found Comet Lemmon.

Nice article about Comet Lemon and its discovery by the Catalina Sky Survey on the front page of the Tucson paper this morning. tucson.com/news/local/s...

Sign up for Jack's talk on Zoom or come by LPL to see his radar instruments in person.

I remember Dawn from the time she was a file folder in the grad application files at NMSU when I was faculty there. Her application was definitely a "must admit" and I'm so glad to see all she has and continues to accomplish!

Not Comet Lemon, but a contrail disconcertingly close to the right place.

I learned from David Minton’s colloquium today that Mars likely once had a ring.

The University of Arizona announced Monday it won't agree to the proposed compact, and instead submitted a statement of principles to the government.

This is a 10/10 no notes Tucson day.

Decided to show off my thesis code in my office.

"New Far Side comics" was definitely not on my bingo card for this week. They're not bad! www.thefarside.com/new-stuff/

I wonder what they are discussing.....

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) on october 16th at 5:30 utc. Sony A7III 85mm lens F1.8 Stars: 60x30sec foreground:7x30sec Location: Beuil,France (06) #astrophotography #comet @astropierre.com

My super modern regulatory plan is that any entity named for a thing from Tolkien has to publicly explain why Tolkien wouldn’t immediately throw it into Mount Doom

Actually a good article once you get past the click-bait headline. The article itself correctly refers to astronomical image processing as "a careful scientific and artistic process that transforms invisible light in space into visible wavelengths humans can see" www.fodors.com/news/news/ho...

Only one week left until the next LPL Evening Lecture! Make sure it's on your calendar! More info: www.lpl.arizona.edu/events/lpl-e...

Evan has extended our cloudy Diamondback evolution models to higher Teff with PHOENIX models at the high end. This permits all model tracks to start at the same young age. We call this model variation Red Diamondback.

80 of the University of Arizona's most elite faculty, all Regents professors, are calling for rejection of the Trump administration's proposed compact. They make a key point I hadn't really focused on: The compact's benefits are completely nebulous. tucson.com/news/local/s...

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

A previous owner of our house installed industrial sized downspouts to handle peak monsoon. This tropical storm downpour we just had overwhelmed one of them. Quite impressive.

One year since my best lifetime bobcat capture. The boy kit (must have been) splashed all the water out of the bowl to take a snooze.

New unified model of equatorial winds on giant planets helps to explain some of the zonal wind observations 🔭 I and my colleagues have made for Neptune and Uranus over the past few decades - www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Watch the visitor on the right.

Are you someone who is interested in astronomy graduate school? This is a list of many/most departments and their expectations for admissions this year. Please feel free to spread it far and wide. If you are doing admissions and you'd like to update your entry, reach out as per the form!

Brief life update: On Monday I resigned from my appointment at Lowell Observatory. I wish my remaining friends and colleagues the best of luckin their endeavors in increasing new visitor center visitation, and continuing to pursue world-class research in the face of having ended tenure today.

LPL and the U of A are grateful that APEX was identified specifically in the House and Senate budgets for ongoing funding.

TV episode set in current day has a 60-something woman named Marley. Nobody over 40 actually has first name Marley (ask me how I know). Writers must all be too young to know.

NWS forecast discussion for Tucson: “Some of the ensemble members of the GEFS and EPS still showing insane higher QPF totals.” In other words some of the models are predicting > 7” of rain this weekend.

I gave a homework assignment in my Exoplanets grad class to define what would be taught as “normal” architecture to grad students in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

The joke that the only time you hear from your adult children is when they need the Netflix code is a bit too close for comfort.

Last night at 7PM, a little drama. First time we’ve had two since spring. I was outside around the to the right enjoying the sunset at the time.

I happened to see this live. I’m not sure what was spooking him from the roof.

A few hours ago, Comet 3I/ATLAS passed about 28 million km from Mars. This was the best opportunity we'll have to image the interstellar visitor from spacecraft. When those data are available, I'll share them!