The Summer I Misplaced the Moon... #TSITP 🔭 Watching the finale last night I happened to notice a few oddities regarding the placement of the Moon, so I wrote a quick set of review slides to work through with my intro astro class ; ) (other than times/locations, this should be spoiler free)

The two kinds of overleaf authors 🧪

Our (Faherty et al) newly published JWST detection of silane (SiH4) in the brown dwarf W1534 (aka "The Accident")! This molecule isn't seen on Jupiter because it's removed by deep silicate clouds, but unusual chemical properties of W1534 allow SiH4 to be mixed up into the visible atmosphere 🔭 🧪

I wrote about how Earth's wobble causes our view of the skies to shift over time. Here's a paywall-free gift link. With @fparis.bsky.social and @iamrumz.bsky.social

The heartbreaking thing about this is that there’s already a proven way to invest lots of money in a knowledge machine that produces unforeseeable results that include fantastically profitable ideas (and some life-saving ones) and generally benefit society and this machine is called a university

I have a complaint about Avi Loeb's latest work and I want to speak to management. medium.com/@steve.desch...

We had an over 99mph(!) derecho pass through last night and lost a few of our favorite small trees. Thankfully house is fine we are all safe & sound!

I liked Caroline Morley's Exoclimes poster describing our Sonora model set so much that I'm going to hang up a replica in my office.

10 years ago, #OnThisDay in 2015, NASA's New Horizons probe performed the first flyby of dwarf planet Pluto, completing the initial survey of the Solar System. This 'true colour' photo was taken on 14 July 2015, showing numerous impact craters and the large basin of the Sputnik Planitia.

The current administration has more successfully destroyed US science and the scientific enterprise than the hypothetical nuclear weapons program in Iran.

I rarely post personal things. But I need to talk about my 4-year-old niece, Hope. She has a rare disease. A drug called elamipretide has helped her survive. But the FDA recently denied its approval. Now, her health hangs in the balance. Please share her story & urge the FDA to reconsider. 🧵

I think about this quote at least once week, from @laurarbnsn.bsky.social

A nice series of snapshots celebrating the 50th anniversary of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at WashU in St. Louis

“She’s not yours to pity. She’s mine to marvel at.” www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-...

The reason we do atmospheric modeling is to learn about processes. We found our Elf Owl models didn't predict the CO2 abundance in brown dwarfs correctly. This was a win, we learned something new! IOur new arXiv note explains it all and how we fixed it. Thanks Nick Wogan! arxiv.org/abs/2505.03994

Scientists who study climate don't automatically attribute all changes to human activity. Rather, we carefully investigate every possible natural factor that could explain the planet's warming. Could these be the real culprits? The evidence is in--and the answer is NO. This thread explains! 🧵

okay now that you all have gotten a taste of America's rational and predictable new trade policy, everyone who wants to build your new factories here just form an orderly line

Today we say goodbye to ESA’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia! The Gaia spacecraft has completed its sky-scanning and will be switched off this morning.

This cut is so short-sighted, as highlighted by this NIST blog post from just 5 days ago. www.nist.gov/blogs/taking... 🧪

Pet peeve: I hate how often ppl claim “all the researchers will just move to Europe/Canada!” You vastly under-estimate how little money there is there vs the USA- and unless that changes ASAP this loss is just going to decimate global science, full stop. 🧪🔭

Check out the press release for our recent work using JWST observations of SIMP0136! Also published today on ApJL: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3...

Loved this historical paper on comparing Henrietta Swan Leavitt's Cepheid period-luminosity data & law to the most modern measurements of the same stars & same law - and remarkably, for century old data, it stacks up pretty well!

Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠 sciencehomecoming.com

I’ve been seething and grieving since yesterday’s Friday Night Massacre of NIH overheads, a seeming bit of bureaucratic trivial that will in fact destroy the US university system if unchecked. But I want to get away from budgets and rate breakdowns and F&A percentages for a moment. Humor me?

It looks like the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory website (gml.noaa.gov) is back online, including the greenhouse gas data pages... 🧪

This. This is so important. NOAA and the NWS are some of the most successful parts of the American government whose work affects all American lives. If sometimes we don’t see that success it’s because there are weather people out there just getting it done, without fanfare or fans. Amazing.

Had a great meeting w/ my extended research family this week at LPL. It all started with me working to create a giant planet 1D radiative convective model at Ames and now, via the open source python version, we have a big team of modelers. Never thought I would have scientific great grandchildren!

remember stuff like this when they tell you that diversity means a lowering of standards

what would you do differently if you were trying to legalize discrimination?

If DEI has just "gotten out of hand," then why is the Trump administration going all the way back to a 1965 LBJ civil rights executive order for repeal? www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-...

Moving things over to this site, including this post: If you haven't seen it, the ADS (ui.adsabs.harvard.edu) has a nice author network visualization tool showing who an author has published with, with links between different networks. From author search results -> Explore -> Author Network 🧪🔭

Scientists! We are trying to get 1000 of us into the volunteer database by Jan 1. You'll be volunteering to speak with classrooms over video chat about your work, and answer their questions! You can volunteer for up to 5 sessions per semester. Sign up here! www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

This looks straight out of a Simon Stålenhag illustration

People sometimes make fun of science that sounds stupid and random. Meanwhile, a study of lizard saliva turned into a peptide medication, which was turned into a diabetes medication, which was turned into a GLP1 weight loss drug, that just became the first therapy every approved for … sleep apnea

These images are amazing! And Nasmyth & Carpenter's 1874 whole book on the Moon is worth exploring (at: archive.org/details/cons...), including numerous photographic plates of plaster models made to simulate the appearance of the lunar topography (image grab from a recent chapter I wrote):

A reminder from a NASA History Office tweet: happy anniversary to the release of the Pioneer Venus 2 large probe and three small probes into the Venusian atmosphere (Dec 9, 1978), and with this amazing artwork by Paul Hudson. #astronomy

Relatable but also: I’d like to talk a little bit about this headline, which is, in my opinion, an example of dysfunction in science reporting today. (Since there’s no alt text, headline reads: “This Black Hole Is Eating So Much Matter that It Defies Known Science”, from 404 Media) 🧵

@bot.astronomy.blue signup

I can't stop thinking about how Trump would eliminate our free, public weather service, NOAA. It's an institution that goes back 53 years and protects Americans everyday with warnings for tornados, thunderstorms and more. That's the Project 2025 plan. www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...

Speaking as a parent of a child with SMA, not only is this cruel, it’s just incredibly short-sighted

Types of Eclipse Photo xkcd.com/2917

It is bad to look directly at the Sun during a solar eclipse (except for the few moments when the Sun is 100% FULLY ECLIPSED, if you're in the path of totality) for the same reason it's bad to look directly at the Sun any other time. www.vox.com/science/2411...

We usually compare GHG emissions and temperatures to pre-industrial times, often considered to be 1850-1900, partly because good records start aroung then. But Japan has kept good records of peak cherry tree flowering since 812! ourworldindata.org/grapher/date...

Big cuts in US research budgets were recently announced. Summary below, read www.science.org/content/arti... for more.

Extremely excited to introduce Climate Pulse - the latest application from #CopernicusClimate to start #climate conversations giving users global temperature data two days behind real time. 
👉 Check it out: pulse.climate.copernicus.eu
 *beta release - constructive feedback welcome:) 🧪⚒️🛰️🌍

Here's a simple interactive #desmos sheet I made a few years ago for an intro atmospheric science class. It allows adjustment of some of the main climate inputs (ENSO, solar, volcanic, anthro) to try to reproduce the global temperature record starting in 1980

happy lunar new year!!

Each time I teach planetary astro I have groups present mission proposals. This year's entries: The Fresh Prints: Neptune Orbiter Comet Swabba: Bernardinelli–Bernstein Sample Return Keeping up with the Europians: Pwyll Crater Lander Lycaon: Callisto Lander Daedalus-Nimrod: Uranian Orbiter & Probe