Rami Elghandour tells Guardian in exclusive interview that cancellation sends ‘dangerous’ message to students

We had a new session at AURA's Annual Meeting this year: a showcase of great science being done with observations from AURA's astronomical facilities! 🔭 From our Sun all the way out to large-scale structure in the Universe, there was something for everyone. Thx to all who participated!

Looking good, Hubble Space Telescope! Keep on keeping on.....

proud to play my tiny part in today’s freak out

Absolutely incredible. NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman, who commanded Artemis II, took this footage from the far side of the Moon with his iPhone. Watch with sound on.

Very happy to see they are on the absolutely correct “all through the town” bus. Sorry “all day long” riders.

Describing dark matter at an NBA press conference ♥️👨🏿‍🔬📡🌌

Now we’re talking

The images of Earth from Artemis are amazing. But if we destroy our ability to understand (and live on) our planet, all they are is pretty pictures www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/o...

Brutal.

Finally we can say what we REALLY think about the Artemis astronauts.

great article, and featuring our Hubble Space Telescope image of the "Molten Ring"

Zeeman getting a shout out... what about magnetic fields?

the farthest expanse across which tears have ever been shed and shared

Short video showing them cruising across the night sky!

really would have loved cameras to see the Earth grow huge as Orion hurtles from apogee to perigee #Artemis

I believe the Artemis astronauts are now farther from the Earth than anyone in the last 50+ years (since Apollo)

Relatively simple physics explains why a hot Big Bang predicts the Universe should have a composition 25% helium by mass. I love teaching this in Astronomy 101 and how a strong prediction like this can be continually tested through observations of gas clouds, stars, etc.

One thing I hadn't realized is that, unlike Apollo 8, Artemis II will not actually orbit the Moon.

Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...

I like the way cricket does this -- if the result is within the automated system's margin of error, it stays with "umpire's call" -but- the team that challenged doesn't lose a challenge.

A UConn win over Duke just means that it's a win for Jersey City over the New Jersey suburbs

I HAVE HELD THE EDGE OF SPACE-TIME IN MY HANDS! ok, not literally, but I did hold my book *The Edge of Space-Time* in my hands for the first time! Preorder from your favorite local brick and mortar! B&N members get 25% off with code PREORDER25. 📚💙 www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746817...

“I am political,” Ms. Rachel told me of her new effort to free kids from ICE detention. “It’s political to believe that children are worthy of love … and that our care shouldn’t stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border. Mr. Rogers was very political.”

What's the value of having telescopes in space? Seeing change over human time scales. Plus the Crab Nebula is gorgeous. Latest from Hubble. science.nasa.gov/missions/hub...

Planets and Bright Stars xkcd.com/3219/

I regret that I had but one cancel for my WaPo subscription

Knowing about how the Universe works *might* be useful (and it has been, many times and in many ways) but that's not fundamentally the reason to study it. Understanding the world and the Universe beyond is an essentially human act, and it enriches us.

I have become the tedious bore who, every time there's a question about something weird in our data, opens with "did you LOOK at the data?". Step 1: Open that FITS file in DS9/python/whatever. Take it from there. 🔭

The largest spot-the-difference effort EVER has begun!🚨 On the night of Feb 24, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory officially released its first ~800,000 public alerts of detected changes in the night sky!🔍 A new era of discovery is here✨ 🔭🧪☄️ 🔗: rubinobservatory.org/news/first-a...

When I was younger I knew who Jesse Jackson was but didn’t quite understand his impact in the years before that until I heard his eulogy of Jackie Robinson in Ken Burns’ “Baseball.” Then I got it. Steal away home and Rest in Power

A four percent illuminated waning crescent moon rises behind the Statue of Liberty as the sun rises in New York City, Sunday morning #newyorkcity #nyc #newyork #sunrise #moon

I’m grateful for the opportunity to join @rescorp.org's #CottrellScholar community. This recognition means a lot to me. I’m excited to advance our understanding of the cosmos by uncovering hidden low-mass galaxies, and to (re-)humanize our computing education in physics and astronomy for the AI era.

Suleiman Baraka in Gaza says this about his work: “I decided to fight the killing of the children by educating the children.... astronomy “is also a window for breathing freedom that we were denied for our whole life". I think this is the reason the world needs it. All of us need his example.

Carbon Dating xkcd.com/3205/

Good read on targets and metrics, by @timharford.ft.com >> giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Another @sarahjeong.bsky.social banger on how ICE is tear-gassing children and families turning out to protest, which is only serving to radicalize people even more. 'When Broeker had first been tear gassed, she had been terrified. But the fear has since faded, leaving only rage.'

Liam Conejo Ramos is not alone. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/o...

Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning. Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.

The arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are a test for every MSM member with a platform. If you are not voicing your outrage at this blatant violation of the First Amendment, you are utterly discredited as a journalist.

Here's a fun piece of code I wrote to visualize the astrometric orbital elements. To run the visualization for yourself, check it out here: github.com/sblunt/show-... Black dashed is the line of nodes, and lighter purple indicates the part of the orbit that is behind the plane of the sky. Enjoy!

such a joy to have given a talk at the Liberty Science Center last week on the CMB + Adele : ) lsc.org/news-and-soc...

Michelle started us off with a response to last years claim that Supernova Ia aren't as reliable as we thought as cosmic probes. This work by Phil Wiseman et al. steps through the claims and shows that these ARE the dark energy tracers we are looking for. ☄️ 🔭 arxiv.org/abs/2601.13785

It moves! We can watch as the Kepler supernova remnant changes over a quarter of century in X-rays from Chandra. #aas247 chandra.si.edu/photo/2026/k...

Happy New Year! 🥳 Our New Year's resolution? To #CaptureTheCosmos💥 2026 will see the start of the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time! Over the next decade, NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory will build the most complete map & detailed time-lapse movie of the Southern sky ever made. 🔭

A really important piece. The times when we have opened our country to talented people from around the world are among the moments when America has been truly great. Trump is destroying that legacy and fomenting unconscionable racism. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/o...

In not-very-good news, extreme winds (114 mph gusts) on the early morning of the 25th caused significant damage to the 36" Great Refractor at Lick Observatory. Half of the main shutter broke off and landed on the main building.

This year's gingerbread is the Vera Rubin Observatory! @vrubinobs.bsky.social