Day goals. #NorahNeko

On 5 July, a manga predicted a catastrophic event that would wipe out much of Japan. But if a disaster were imminent, would we be prepared? The JAXA Planetary Defense team give a run down of projects worldwide to protect the Earth 🛰️🔭 My latest for JAXA Cosmos 🤸‍♂️🧪➡️ cosmos.isas.jaxa.jp/july-5-the-d...

There is your problem. Freeloading immigrants! Mr President, that's Larry.

I love London so much. So much. Did you know that London has the lowest level of ethnic violence of any city of comparable size in the world? Multiculturalism has in fact worked here. They just don’t want it to be true because we happen to have a Muslim mayor.

Hair and cigarettes. And many, many questions 🧐

Today marks 5 years since “The Future of Meetings” 2020 - the OG #TFOM symposium! To celebrate, we’ll follow TFOM themes of Today, Tomorrow, Future to highlight what we’ve been up to over the past 5 years, and where we’re heading in future 🙌🎉 #TFOM5YL Relevant links here: linktr.ee/tfom

NEWSFLASH! Gate v.2.0 has been defeated. We learned how to pull with our paws. Our love was in sight, but she fled through a solid wall. WITCHCRAFT! (Or a cat flap 😹) #NorahNeko

Simon (visiting kitty) yowled all night. At 4:30am, I identified and removed the problem. This was the problem. I suspect she was strutting across the living room to antagonise him 🤦🏼‍♀️😂 #NorahNeko

A Mikoshi (portable shrine) from the local Shinto shrine being carried around the streets!

Phone Box of The Day: Clashnessie, Sutherland. Pic: Richard Semik

For times when I need to work in my study (and don’t want to lock Norah out for the whole period) or flush the room with cooler air, I assembled the three-tier cat cage for Simon. I was proud of my handiwork! Simon… not so much 😾😂

“We are being taunted, TAUNTED, I tell you! This cat, she is a tease!”

This is Simon. He is a guest for two week. His dearest wish is to tell #NorahNeko that he’ll be the Jorts to her Jean. I can tell you that this will not be well received 😅

Starting a business is terrifying. Starting a business largely unrelated to one’s profession of the last 30 years or so in an industry known to be both capital intensive and barely profitable when things are going well, well, that’s a bit reckless.

Persuaded @jason.jagaimo.com to let me take the new beef stew with bread and cream cheese dinner plate at #Nokucheese 🍽️ away as takeout! It heated up beautifully.

My periodic reminder for #astrosci #astrodon #exoplanets Early Career Researchers to please, please, please have a simple web site with your current email address on it - rationale here: kenworthy.space/advice/

There is a prime empty end seat next to me on the train, but someone has just shunned it in favour for a seat squashed between two people. It’s been a while since my foreigner forcefield has worked so well 😂

I saw a small child on the walk home who had a bandage on his forehead and round glasses that were tied around his head with not one, but two sets of elastic straps. And I feel that tells the whole story.

I went to the convenience store at just the wrong moment 😅

I am constipated due to my annual medical tomorrow in which I’m supposed to provide a stool sample and a management-level decision has been taken somewhere in the colon to nope the hell out of that.

It’s not yet 8am, but has a “real feel” of 31°C and the humidity is 83%. WHERE IS AUTUMN? How I remember ye from my childhood days.

Frog was trembling. “I am not afraid!” he shouted.

@sheepchase.net Do you have this book? Because I feel... maybe you should have this book 😂

3 things ahout Apophis we have to communicate as science community: 1) Apophis will safely pass the Earth 2) Apophis will safely pass the Earth 3) Apophis will safely pass the Earth Dr. Richard Binzel (MIT) at the Keynote talk in room Jupiter #EPSCDPS2025

Visited "Venice Immersive", the VR-arm of the Venice Film Festival hosted on @vrchat.com. This year is amazing, with worlds that look like fairy tales, dynamic live stages for concerts, and an incredible "factors of 10" experience where you can walk from quark-scale to that of cosmic structure.

A favourite word in JAXA English articles is “elucidate”, which I swear nobody else on the entire planet uses in any form of regular correspondence 😐 Except I’ve just used it in my own paper draft, and I feel osmosis may have gone the wrong direction in this case 🧐

Holy moly. OK authors, what do we do to collect? Pretty sure I'm on that list.

We have never used this lower cat bed, which is really a crash mat for the window hammock, UNTIL I took part of the space for some books. Now, outrage 😐 #NorahNeko

Wooosh! Tokyo be tropical storm’ing. It is 80% humidity in my apartment and this pretty band of greenery is turning into a mud river. JAXA dispatched an email, not issuing specific instructions, but reminding us that telework is a thing ⛈️☔️

I just sent my real estate agent a photograph of an entirely empty plot of land and asked if we could buy whatever they’re building there. And friends, I feel he may be regretting working with me. (Small defense: there was a business notification sign that mentioned apartments 😅)

Everyone understands NASA centres such as “NASA Goddard”, “NASA Johnson”, “NASA Ames” etc. But you talk about “JAXA ISAS” and nobody can cope with such confusion. (Disturbingly, including NASA.) Then you mention that there are multiple JAXA campuses and BOOM 🤯 Brain parts everywhere. What a mess.

It’s a 1:10 DESTINY+ spacecraft! And a babier 1:20 DESTINY+ spacecraft 🛰️🛰️ DESTINY+ is an up-coming JAXA mission to test flyby observations by observing the active asteroid, Phaethon (and a few others), which is thought to shower Earth with (organic-rich) dust and cause the Geminid meteor shower ☄️

Here's something new and weird -- eccentric rings of co-orbital planets. They are stable indefinitely, from an orbital point of view. Could they actually form and exist? planetplanet.net/2025/09/02/e...

You know when a problem is unexpectedly solved, and you only appreciate how worried you’d been when you dance through the streets in a rush of euphoria? 💃🏼🕺🏼 FEELS GREAT. But it is actually 35°C and this will not end well.

Home! #NorahNeko

The asteroid Ryugu grain is back at the JAXA Sagamihara Campus after the Thailand debut! Unfortunately, so am I as I arrived in Japan too late to escort the asteroid sample to campus and travel home before the last train. So I am staying at the ISAS lodge overnight. It lacks a cat. And this is sad.

And that’s a wrap! NARIT 🔭 developed a fabulous display for the asteroid Ryugu grain brought to Earth by the JAXA Hayabusa2 mission 🛰️ in both Bangkok and Chiang Mai: it was wonderful to work with the Thai team! Our asteroid grain is now heading home to Japan 🧪

Tis I! Reflected in the 2.4m primary mirror (same as Hubble 🛰️) of the Thai National Observatory 🔭 Located on Thailand’s tallest peak inside the Doi Inthanon National Park near Chiang Mai, no trees were allowed to be felled to build the observatory, so a co-rotating dome is used to save space!

Please hear my last will and testament from the back of an elephant 🐘 It feels way more precarious than the gentle swaying suggests 😐 (I did in fact survive. But let it be noted that I thought of my social feeds, my parents, and the international asteroid grain exhibits in that order 😂)

Ready to roll!

A smooth rotator! This is the 40m Thai National Radio Telescope (TNRT) 🔭 with a design based on the Spanish Yebes Observatory. The telescope is based near Chiang Mai and is sensitive to 0.3 - 115 GHz and currently has L- and K-band detectors.

Look, Ma, I’m a real scientist! And touring the optical labs of the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT)! I spotted a coronograph design to block out a star’s light so an exoplanet can be imaged, and adaptive optics for wiggling mirrors to compensate for wiggling atmosphere.

Woke from a dream in which I flew to Sydney in a spare flight model for the SLIM lunar lander, as this was the easiest way to transport such a large model for exhibit. FYI: this would not have worked. SLIM is not large enough for human passengers. And it cannot fly in air 🧐

It’s 7:30am and I am packed so tightly onto this train, that only one foot is on the ground.

This month, a sample grain from asteroid Ryugu has been on display in Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand! 🛰️ I'll be giving a public talk at Princess Sirindhorn AstroPark on Saturday to mark the closure of the exhibit, and I made a short montage of a few great snaps of #AsteroidGrainsOnTour! 🔭🧪

When your talk mentions contamination control for sample return missions, and you're PRETTY SURE you understand how that works.

How hot is it in Tokyo? This chocolatier put up a sign saying they’re closing for August bc they can’t keep their product from melting 🫠

My coauthor, not entirely helping. #NorahNeko

How is it that the balcony cat food and water end up in such a mess? …. I wonder no longer 😮‍💨

Take a quick… what now?! 😳