I just had to schedule my next mammogram and felt a little tingle of fear. Last time I went in so unsuspecting and unprepared.

"OMB said that Alderaan could be spared if Leia decided to share the location of the rebel base"

"OMB said its layoff notices could be avoided if Democrats decide to support the bill" So, it's blackmail then.

🎶 ONE MORE DAWN, ONE MORE DAY, OOOONE DAAAAAAY MOOOOORE.

I was in so much pain in the last ~month of my twin pregnancy that I got through a vaginal birth without an epidural because induced labor still *hurt less than being pregnant*. Tough it out? Tough it out?! You have no idea how tough women already have to be. What a joke.

Just got a request from the league that none of the parents ‘verbally cheer’ at the kids’ soccer games on the weekend. Clapping is allowed. This is purportedly to make the game ‘more fun’ for the kids. Desperate to know what prompted this.

Hooray for great students who also like musicals!! @sabinastro.bsky.social

[BURR] Did you hear the news about good old General Mercer? [HAMILTON] No [BURR] You know Clermont Street? [HAMILTON] Yes [BURR] They renamed it after him. The Mercer legacy is secure [HAMILTON] Sure [BURR] And all he had to do was die [HAMILTON] That's a lot less work [BURR] We oughta give it a try

Life news -- starting Fall 2026, I'll be an Assistant Prof in University of Maryland, College Park's Astronomy Department! I'll be starting up a lab to measure all the substellar cloud things 🌤️🪐✨ and continuing alllllll the atmospheric model things Lowkey obsessed with the mascot #FeartheTurtle

Walked around Greenwich Village for dinner, had a slice of New York pizza and a slice of New York cheesecake for dessert - I may endeavour to only eat triangular, New York styles of food while I’m here. Are there any others I need to try?

Hello from NYC!! I’m visiting NYU tomorrow so I’m hanging around Washington Sq for a few days. The square is HOPPING for a Monday night.

So discombobulating to watch today’s proceedings unfold after seeing Eureka Day at the Pasadena Playhouse (after its Kennedy Center run was cancelled!) just two days ago. It’s like the Suzanne’s of the country got actual power. 🫠

“you died without making something that no one else could make” 🔥🔥🔥 You enrich the world with *your* unique lived experience, memories, viewpoints. You bring nothing new to the world by prompting an algorithm to regurgitate a meaningless amalgam of experiences other people have previously shared.

People who use AI think that they’re skipping to the success when they’re skipping to the failure. You begin and end your life as someone who has not written the novel, you did not teach yourself to express what was inside of you, you died without making something that no one else could make.

It rains one (1) time in Los Angeles and the mushroom spores are like LEEEROOOY JENKINSSSSSSS.

Our bulk cat food order has arrived and Artemis has claimed it like some kind of small furry Smaug.

It’s Friday night. I’ve done enough this week. You’ve done enough this week.

My first NASA position, as a contractor in the Kepler Science Office, was on a H-1b visa. NASA ended up giving me a medal and now I’m the Chief Scientist of NASA Exoplanet Science Institute and an American citizen to boot. Seems like a net win for the US, no? But now this:

So, if I understand correctly, congress couldn't pass a budget, went on a break, came back from the break, couldn't pass a short-term continuing resolution, are now going on a break again, and won't come back from the break until after the deadline for a government shutdown?

We've reached 6,000 confirmed exoplanets! I talked with @aussiastronomer.bsky.social about where things go from here. (A great graphic by @unamandita.bsky.social visualizes the amazing jumps in planet finds since the first ones were confirmed in the 1990s.)

Nice @sciam.bsky.social article by @sarahexplains.bsky.social on the NASA Exoplanet Archive reaching 6,000 planets! “You’re no longer just asking “what”; you’re asking “why”—“and that’s, for me, where it gets exciting.”

Does anyone know what the language re: NASA is in the CR that the house just passed? I can't find any details beyond the Democrats requesting a few days ago for the NASA science budget to be protected in the CR.

Did you hear? The number of confirmed #exoplanets has surpassed 6000! 🙌 Exciting times for our #ExoplanetExplorers 🛰️ future terrestrial planet hunter, Plato 🛰️ upcoming Ariel mission looking at exoplanets' atmospheres 🛰️ our hard-at work Cheops, studying exoplanets orbiting nearby bright stars 🔭

As a data point, I was able to get a Covid shot in Pasadena yesterday (also a flu shot, ow my arms), but I had to read and sign a form saying I acknowledged that the FDA had not recommended it for me, and then also listen to a nurse assistant tell me the same thing and verbally consent. 💉✅

Me trying to guess when the quietest time will be to show up at the medical center for a blood test. The medical center at that time:

The official number of exoplanets has surpassed 6,000! And you can access data on all 6,007 of them right here at IPAC 📈 🪐 Watch the video & read all about the center of the exoplanet universe (also known as NExScI!) here: www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/the-nas...

Just out here sprinkling exoplanet knowledge on people like some kind of fairy godmother. 🪄🪐🚀🛰️

Me to my husband: Tell me if I sound too over the top. My husband: Over the top about exoplanets! Like you should be! ;-) 😐 Thanks for the reassurance, babe.

NASA FRONT PAGE, BABY!

Gaia in 2026 to the '10,000' milestone.

Every open overleaf project right now: There are nearly^H^H^H^H^H^H over 6,000 confirmed exoplanets.

Some tidbits about the most recent 1,000 exoplanets: - Nearly half (~490) were discovered with NASA's TESS mission - As a result, their host stars are nearly *10 times brighter on average* than previous stars! - We have found a lot more cool giant planets (Jupiter analogs), with RV and imaging

Sometimes 2025 just feels like a lot, and you need an excuse to celebrate your fabulous team (and the whole exoplanet community!) reaching a new milestone… Happy 6,000 Confirmed Exoplanets Day, everybody!!!! (You may recognize the narrator of the video at the link! 🫣) www.nasa.gov/universe/exo...

Well, it happened. I was laid off from my job yesterday. If anyone has any leads on open marketing, content, or ecommerce roles, I would be so grateful. And if anyone wants to hire me to write about baseball full-time, I wouldn't be opposed to that either. www.linkedin.com/in/jakemailh...

They’re only Tim Tams if they come from the Tim Tam region of Australia. Otherwise they’re just:

I’m choosing D and you could even take out Australia and it would still be D.

Okay that might be enough internet for today.

TFW your brief hustle to the office kitchen for some free leftover birthday cake closes your exercise ring.

“It’s incredibly beautiful and poignant that the oldest stories we have—the stories humanity has been telling ourselves for tens of thousands of years—are stories about the sky and what it can tell us about where we come from and where we’re going,” [Christiansen] said.

It was my birthday last month and people in my life will be like "You're so hard to buy for!" and yet in the preceding month the number of people I sent the link to the new She-Ra Barbie doll to with the excited "Wow look they're making a SHERA BARBIE!" is... not small. (I did not get the doll.)

If you see this, quote with the energy you bring to bsky.

Just arrived back home from Utah - spent most of the second half of the drive realising that this could happen, calculating when to hit the trip button so it would happen, and then waiting for it to happen. 😂😂😂

Fourth talk in three nights given, and that’s a wrap on the Southwest Astronomy Festival! Marvelous hosts, marvelous audiences, and marvelous skies! (Also it’s really starting to feel like it’s time to get out of Utah. 👀)

More photos!

Spoilers: Today I chose hike! (A bajillion more photos to come!)

iPhone 15 (!) photo of Scorpio and Sagittarius. The skies are SO BEAUTIFUL here.

Second night of the Southwest Astronomy Festival found me at the Cedar Breaks National Monument! What an incredible setting for a star party.

Important decision this morning. Hiking or hot springs???

Okay, all dolled up and ready to kick off the Southwest Astronomy Festival!!! Four talks over three nights, in and around Zion NP and Cedar Breaks NM. I’m expecting gorgeous dark skies and interested audiences!

Process of the commission prize for K'Andra, winner of the @blackinastro.bsky.social Art Contest! #sciart